CT BETA, present at an Ateneu session on the environmental problems of antibiotics

The round table “Health and environment: the case of antibiotics”, organised as part of the programme of activities of the Ateneu de Vic and which took place last Wednesday at the Casino de Vic, included the participation of several members of the UVic -UCC. Among them, Lorenzo Proia, head of the Applied Ecology and Global Change Area of the BETA Technology Centre, and Íngrid Vilaró, head of the Antibiotic Prescription Control Team (PROA) of the Vic Hospital Consortium and professor at the Faculty of Medicine.

The development and spread of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, caused by the continued use of these drugs in human and veterinary medicine, is a matter of growing concern. The round table discussion served to discuss various aspects of this problem, such as the persistence of antibiotics in the environment and the possible effects they can have on human health. Numerous scientific studies and environmental monitoring reports demonstrate the effects and risks of chronic (as well as occasional) exposure to these compounds.

Some of the projects that CT BETA has worked on have allowed it to provide answers to some of these challenges. For example, it has recently led the development of a technical guide for the livestock sector, which compiles the results obtained in previous studies that evaluated the ability of slurry treatment technologies to reduce the concentration of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes.

Round table on novel foods, 14 December

The collaboration between the Ateneu de Vic and CT BETA has also made it possible to organise the session “Novel foods, new sources of protein: necessity or fashion?”, which will take place at the Pilarin Bayés Library on 14 December. The round table, which will be moderated by Ricard Carreras of CT BETA and coordinator of the Table for Sustainable Management in Osona, will include the participation of Guillem Martí, livestock farmer of the Ges valley; Mariona Pratdesava, project manager of INNOVACC; Imma Puigcorbé, veterinarian, and Míriam Torres, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Welfare of the UVic-UCC.

The Ateneu de Vic is a space shared between the City Council of Vic, the UVic-UCC and the Casino de Vic, founded in 2015 with the aim of promoting intellectual activity, fostering intellectual creativity, and contributing to the social cohesion of the city of Vic and the Osona region.