Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several antibacterial substances derived from an actinomycete related to Streptomyces virginiae, used chiefly as an additive in animal feed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An antibiotic, used in agriculture and in the fuel ethanol industry to prevent microbial contamination.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin virginiae, specific epithet (from genitive sing. of Virginia, Virginia) + –mycin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

After the bacterium Streptomyces virginiae + -mycin.

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Examples

  • Among others, ethanol producers use penicillin and a popular antibiotic called virginiamycin to kill bacteria.

    News & Features from Minnesota Public Radio 2009

  • Ethanol producers use penicillin and a popular antibiotic called virginiamycin to kill bacteria.

    Organic Consumers Association News Headlines 2009

  • Clinicians also worry about vancomycin-resistant enterococci VRE, encouraged by the use of the antibiotic virginiamycin in livestock, Clostridium difficile, a serious intestinal bug developing resistance, and resistant Acinetobacter baumannii which has so afflicted US troops in Iraq it has been dubbed "Iraqibacter."

    Martha Rosenberg: Are You Eating Antibiotics Without Knowing It? Probably! Martha Rosenberg 2012

  • Clinicians also worry about vancomycin-resistant enterococci VRE, encouraged by the use of the antibiotic virginiamycin in livestock, Clostridium difficile, a serious intestinal bug developing resistance, and resistant Acinetobacter baumannii which has so afflicted US troops in Iraq it has been dubbed "Iraqibacter."

    Martha Rosenberg: Are You Eating Antibiotics Without Knowing It? Probably! Martha Rosenberg 2012

  • Casewell M, Freeman J, Friis C, Goossens H (2000) Avoparcin and virginiamycin as animal growth promoters: a plea for science in decision-making.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Franck Thuny et al. 2010

  • Casewell M, Freeman J, Friis C, Goossens H (2000) Avoparcin and virginiamycin as animal growth promoters: a plea for science in decision-making.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Franck Thuny et al. 2010

  • But Canadian and American producers continue to use several of those banned drugs, including salinomycin for cattle, bactricin for chickens, turkeys and swine, tylosin in swine, and virginiamycin for chickens and swine.

    canada.com Top Stories 2010

  • Rowles gives his pigs virginiamycin, which has been used in livestock for decades and is not absorbed by the gut.

    KDBC.com 2010

  • The maker of virginiamycin declined to comment, but the company is expected to ask the FDA to approve the antibiotic as a human food additive.

    Organic Consumers Association News Headlines 2009

  • The maker of virginiamycin declined to comment, but the company is expected to ask the FDA to approve the antibiotic as a human food additive.

    News & Features from Minnesota Public Radio 2009

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