Are there good and bad bacteria?
If you are the inventor of an anti-microbial technology one of the more frequently asked questions you get goes something like this, “I really understand the need to kill the bad and dangerous germs… but how do you make sure you don’t kill the good bacteria as well?” The answer I give often causes the person asking momentary alarm, because I say quite simply that I don’t distinguish bacteria as good or bad because Byotrol is specifically designed to kill them all!
Nearly always eyes widen as the questioner quietly assesses me and quickly places me in the heartless and brutish category that is nowadays normally only reserved for Imperial Tiger hunters in the 1920’s.
Most people normally give me the chance to redeem myself, allowing me to explain why this is not a bad, dangerous or terrible thing. I firmly believe that when thinking of bacteria and microbes they are neither good or bad, the usual problem with them is that they get in the wrong place (for humans!) and because they are so tiny they can get virtually everywhere.
Take for instance the bacteria that live in your gut, an amazing bunch of microbes that work 24/7 helping to digest food and keep you nourished and ultimately alive! Surely these are the good guys! However just imagine your horror and disgust if you discovered that there was a dose of faecal bacteria on a sandwich you had just been given! Good bacteria just in the wrong place….
Put another way, just about everyone agrees that honey bees are a fantastically “good” insect, and that nature in general and farmers in particular would be in serious trouble without them. Those warm appreciative feelings tend to quickly dissipate if you like me, put your bare foot into a shoe that contains one….
So are there Bacterial good guys? The answer is a resounding yes (Just think Beer (Yeasts) and Cheese (fungi) if you are not sure!) And as for the other end of the scale even the most dreadful of infectious disease causing pathogens are they really bad? I would say certainly they are dangerous, but bad… I am not so sure.
So I hope we can stop thinking of good and bad bacteria, let’s just think of them as where they should be and where they should not be. If they are where they should be … great! If they are where they should not be, then the best way is to get rid of them all, simply and safely and whilst doing that make sure it is really hard for them to quickly come back…. seem like a good Idea? I certainly think so.
