Big poultry farms have received millions of dollars for their losses. Animal welfare groups contend that aid reinforces inhumane cullings of sick birds.The highly lethal form of avian influenza circulating the globe since 2021 has killed tens of millions of birds, forced poultry farmers in the United States to slaughter entire flocks and prompted a brief but alarming spike in the price of eggs.Most recently, it has infected dairy cows in several states and at least one person in Texas who had close contact with the animals, officials said this week.The outbreak, it turns out, is proving to be especially costly for American taxpayers.Last year, the Department of Agriculture paid poultry producers more than half a billion dollars for the turkeys, chickens and egg-laying hens they were forced to kill after the flu strain, H5N1, was detected on their farms.Officials say the compensation program is aimed at encouraging farms to report outbreaks quickly. That’s because the government pays for birds killed through culling, not those that die from the disease. Early reporting, the agency says, helps to limit the virus’s spread to nearby farms.The cullings are often done by turning up the heat in barns that house thousands of birds, a method that causes heat stroke and that many veterinarians and animal welfare organizations say results in unnecessary suffering.Among the biggest recipients of the agency’s bird flu indemnification funds from 2022 to this year were Jennie-O Turkey Store, which received more than $88 million, and Tyson Foods, which was paid nearly $30 million. Despite their losses, the two companies reported billions of dollars in profits last year.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Can an experimental drug cure opioid addiction? Andrew Jacobs, who writes about psychedelic medicine for The Times, explored the “promise and peril” of ibogaine.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.As a reporter covering psychedelic medicine for the Health and Science desk at The New York Times, the drugs that often command my attention are familiar to any veteran psychonaut: ketamine; LSD; psilocybin, or “magic mushrooms”; and MDMA, also known as Molly or Ecstasy.Many of these psychoactive substances have been the subjects of research for years, if not decades. And a growing tranche of scientific evidence suggests these drugs have the potential to treat some mental health issues, among them depression, substance abuse and eating disorders.But research on psychedelics has largely ignored ibogaine, a drug that’s derived from a plant native to the rainforests of Central Africa.Over the past three years on this beat, I have interviewed researchers who have occasionally mentioned ibogaine, often in tones that hinted at both promise and peril. The handful of experts who have worked directly with the drug cast it as a powerful addiction interrupter — one that can quell the excruciating symptoms of opioid withdrawal and tame the cravings to use again. According to a number of small studies, many patients report being able to achieve long-term sobriety after a single therapeutic session. (In the United States, the drug remains illegal; many patients will travel abroad for ibogaine therapy.)But there are downsides. An ibogaine journey can be grueling. Some patients can feel the effects for up to 24 hours.From 1990 to 2020, more than 30 ibogaine-related deaths have also been reported — some of them ascribed to severe arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat, that in rare cases can lead to fatal cardiac arrest. Those risks were enough to prompt the Food and Drug Administration in the 1990s to end further study on ibogaine’s potential to treat crack cocaine addiction.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

At SXSW, a documentary traces the arc of plastics in our lives, and highlights evolving research of the potential harm of its presence in our bodies.It’s been more than five decades since Dustin Hoffman’s character in “The Graduate” was offered a kernel of wisdom about the path to prosperity.“Plastics,” he’s told by Mr. McGuire, the starched corporate executive who offers the advice. “There’s a great future in plastics.”Plastics have indeed been a game changer for humanity, and the enormous range of cheap, durable plastic goods, from food containers and PVC pipes to polyester clothing and single-use medical products, have inarguably improved life.The problem, as nearly everyone knows, is that plastics are forever and very little of it has been recycled. The U.N. has estimated that most of the 400 million metric tons churned out annually — a doubling of production since 2000 — will remain on Earth in some form as they are broken down into teeny specks by sunlight, wind and the sea.Roughly 20 years ago, Richard Thompson, a marine biologist, first discovered a worrisome accumulation of small plastic particles in ocean habitats and coined the word “microplastics.” Since then, scientists have been finding these fragments everywhere, from remote mountain peaks and the Arctic to the ocean seafloor.In the decade that followed, scientists began to discover microplastics embedded in a wide range of living creatures, including in the seafood we eat. More recently, microplastics have been found inside the human body: in our lungs, our blood, our feces and in breast milk.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Ibogaine, a formidable hallucinogen made from the root of a shrub native to Central Africa, is not for the timid. It unleashes a harrowing psychedelic trip that can last more than 24 hours, and the drug can cause sudden cardiac arrest and death.But scientists who have studied ibogaine have reported startling findings. According to a number of small studies, between a third and two-thirds of the people who were addicted to opioids or crack cocaine and were treated with the compound in a therapeutic setting were effectively cured of their habits, many after just a single session.Ibogaine appears to provide two seemingly distinct benefits. It quells the agony of opioid withdrawal and cravings and then gives patients a born-again-style zeal for sobriety.Now, after decades in the shadows, and with opioid overdose deaths exceeding 100,000 a year, ibogaine is drawing a surge of fresh interest from researchers who believe it has the potential to treat opioid use disorder.“It’s not an exaggeration to say that ibogaine saved my life, allowed me to make amends with the people I hurt and helped me learn to love myself again,” said Jessica Blackburn, 37, who is recovering from heroin addiction and has been sober for eight years. “My biggest frustration is that more people don’t have access to it.”That’s because ibogaine is illegal in the United States. Patients have to go abroad for ibogaine therapy, often at unregulated clinics that provide little medical oversight.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Some researchers hope the drug, still illegal in the United States, may be considered as a treatment for addiction, PTSD and brain injuries.What is ibogaine?A naturally occurring psychoactive compound, ibogaine comes from the iboga tree, a rainforest shrub native to Central Africa. The drug comes from the bark of the root, which is crushed and consumed as a powder or given in an extracted form.Iboga has long been used for medicinal and ritual purposes in Gabon, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. After its discovery by French and Belgian explorers in the 19th century, it was sold as a stimulant in France. In recent decades, ibogaine has shown promise for treating opioid addiction, with several small studies suggesting that a third to two-thirds of patients who undergo treatment achieve sobriety after a single session. Some researchers have been studying ibogaine’s potential to treat traumatic brain injuries and PTSD.How does ibogaine work?Ibogaine quells the agonizing symptoms of opioid withdrawal and also appears to reduce the desire to use drugs, at least initially. Scientists are still trying to understand how it works against addiction, but many believe ibogaine fosters the creation of new neurons and neuroplasticity, a rewiring of the brain that gives patients fresh perspectives on self-destructive behavior and the unresolved trauma that sustains it.“Ibogaine seems to be resetting the brain pharmacologically, and at the same time, it’s producing deep psychological insight into the underlying drivers of addiction,” said Dr. Joseph Peter Barsuglia, a clinical and research psychologist who advises ibogaine clinics in Mexico.Is it legal?No. In the United States, ibogaine is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance like heroin and other drugs that are deemed as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Americans who want access to ibogaine therapy must travel to countries where it is either legal or unregulated, among them Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Infection control lapses, severe staffing shortages and lowering vaccination rates have continued to plague many facilities beyond the pandemic.Many Americans prefer to believe the Covid pandemic is a thing of the past. But for the nation’s nursing homes, the effects have yet to fully fade, with staffing shortages and employee burnout still at crisis levels and many facilities struggling to stay afloat, according to a new report published Thursday by federal investigators.The report, by the inspector general’s office at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that the flawed infection-control procedures that contributed to the 170,000 deaths at nursing homes during the pandemic were still inadequate at many facilities. And while the uptake of Covid vaccines was initially robust when they first became available, investigators found that vaccination booster rates among staff workers and residents have been badly lagging.The findings were directed at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the agency under the department’s jurisdiction that oversees 1.2 million nursing home residents whose care is provided mainly by the federal government. The inspector general’s report described the staffing problems as “monumental,” noting high levels of burnout, frequent employee turnover and the burdens of constantly training new employees, some of whom fail to show up for their first day of work. For nursing homes, the inability to attract and retain certified nurse aides, dietary services staff and housekeeping workers is tied to federal and state reimbursements that do not cover the full cost of care.Rachel Bryan, a social science analyst with the inspector general’s office, said the report sought to ensure that key lessons from the pandemic were not lost, especially now that the acute sense of urgency has faded.“Just as airplanes cannot be repaired while in flight, nursing home challenges could not be fully repaired during the pandemic,” she said. “We feel very strongly that as we come out of emergency mode, we take the time to reflect, learn and take real steps toward meaningful change.”The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services declined to discuss the recommendations, and instead directed a reporter to comments the agency provided for the report. Those comments were largely noncommittal, neither agreeing or disagreeing with the recommendations, but agency officials asked that some of the proposed recommendations be removed from the report, saying improvements were already in the works.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Dozens of people, including babies, were sickened, according to a C.D.C. study that highlighted the risks of snuggling with the strikingly scaly lizards, many of which carry salmonella bacteria in their gut.The outbreak of a rare strain of salmonella that sickened scores of people, including several infants, across the United States and Canada, has been linked to pet bearded dragons, some most likely obtained from the same breeder in Southeast Asia, according to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The outbreak covered in the study occurred in 2021 and 2022, but salmonella infections associated with bearded dragons have become increasingly common in recent years, mirroring the rising popularity of the goofy, scaly lizards as household pets.Last year, a salmonella outbreak in 20 states affected nearly three dozen people, 10 of whom were hospitalized, according to the C.D.C.No deaths were reported.Bearded dragons, scientifically known as Pogona, are native to Australia, but most of those sold to pet owners are bred in captivity. The banana-size lizards have won the hearts of pet enthusiasts across the world. Not only are they captivating to observe, but bearded dragons also can make engaging pets when provided with proper care.Judging from the many social media accounts that document their adventures, pet bearded dragons spend a fair amount of time frolicking with their owners, wearing adorable outfits and scampering around living rooms and kitchens as if they were dogs.“They are the golden retriever of the reptile world in terms of ease of handling,” said Dr. La’Toya Latney, president of the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians and the owner of several pet reptiles. (Unlike dogs, however, bearded dragons are not easy to potty train.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? 

Matthew Perry’s death was attributed to the effects of high levels of the anesthetic drug, which is increasingly used to treat depression.An autopsy report released by the Los Angeles County medical examiner on Friday said the death of “Friends” actor Matthew Perry, who was found face down and unresponsive in a hot tub at his home on Oct. 28, resulted from the “acute effects” of ketamine, an anesthetic with psychedelic properties.Ketamine has become increasingly popular as a therapy for treatment-resistant depression and other mental health issues. It is also used recreationally.Mr. Perry had publicly acknowledged his long struggle with alcohol and drug use, but the report said he had been sober for 19 months and little was known about his relationship to ketamine.What is ketamine, and is it legal?Ketamine is an injectable, short-acting dissociative anesthetic that can have hallucinogenic effects at certain doses. It distorts perceptions of sight and sound and makes users feel detached from pain and their surroundings.Developed as a battlefield anesthetic in the 1960s, ketamine has been legal since 1970 for use in both people and animals. It is frequently used as an anesthetic for children, especially in the developing world.But the psychiatric use of ketamine is still unapproved and unregulated, although it is increasingly used off label for treating depression, suicidal ideation and chronic pain.In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration approved a nasal spray version of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression that is marketed as esketamine.Ketamine has the potential for abuse, which may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence, but experts consider it a safe medication.Those who use it recreationally often snort the drug in powder form or administer it intranasally by spray.“People shouldn’t be afraid to use ketamine if it’s prescribed by their physician and it’s delivered correctly in a health care setting,” said Dr. Gerard Sanacora, director of the Yale Depression Research Program and co-director of the Yale New Haven Hospital Interventional Psychiatry Service.Can ketamine be lethal?Ketamine is rarely lethal, but an overdose can cause unconsciousness and dangerously slowed breathing, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The amount of ketamine found in Mr. Perry’s system was extremely high, comparable to an anesthetic dose, the medical examiner’s office wrote.Side effects like increased blood pressure and paranoia are rare and typically occur at very high doses. Frequent users of the drug can develop bladder problems.The F.D.A. in October issued a warning about the dangers of using compounded versions of ketamine. Compounded drugs are those that have been modified or tailored in a lab for the specific needs of an individual patient.The agency, citing adverse incident reports, warned that the unsupervised use of compounded ketamine heightened the risk of dangerous psychiatric reactions and health problems like increased blood pressure, respiratory depression and urinary tract issues that can lead to incontinence.Matthew Perry had more ketamine in his system than the amount used for a typical infusion, the autopsy report showed.Carlo Allegri/ReutersDr. Steven Radowitz, chief medical officer at Nushama, a ketamine clinic in New York, said patients must pass a full medical and psychiatric screening “to ensure they are a fit for treatment.”At Nushama and other clinics, doses are administered at “sub-anesthetic” levels so that patients remain conscious during their therapy sessions, Dr. Radowitz said.What is known about Mr. Perry’s ketamine use?Mr. Perry had been undergoing medically supervised ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety, and he had received an infusion a week and a half before he died, according to the autopsy report. The medical examiner’s office determined that treatment was unrelated to his death because the drug remains in the system for just a few hours.Although the report did not say so, that suggests Mr. Perry was using ketamine at home at the time of his death.Law enforcement authorities did not find any ketamine at his home, the medical examiner said.The report did not detail the exact sequence of events that led to Mr. Perry’s death, but it cited three contributing factors: drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine, a prescribed medication that he was taking to treat opioid addiction.“At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression,” the report read.At high doses, ketamine can cause dangerous changes in blood pressure that may be particularly harmful for people with cardiovascular disease.The sedating effects of ketamine could have been compounded by the buprenorphine Mr. Perry was taking.Dr. Sanacora of Yale University said the plethora of risk factors made it hard to pinpoint what caused Mr. Perry’s death.“I’m not a coroner or a forensic pathologist, but he had a lot of risk factors and there are a lot of potential things that could have happened,” he said. “The most important takeaway is that ketamine is not a drug to be taken at home.”

Unsupervised treatment — fueled by telemedicine prescriptions — for various psychiatric problems poses a number of health risks, the agency said.The Food and Drug Administration issued an alert on Tuesday about the dangers of treating psychiatric disorders with compounded versions of ketamine, a powerful anesthetic that has become increasingly popular among those seeking alternative therapies for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other difficult-to-treat mental health problems.Compounded drugs are those that have been modified or tailored in a lab for the specific needs of an individual patient.The agency, citing reports it had received of adverse incidents, warned that the unsupervised use of compounded ketamine heightened the risk of dangerous psychiatric reactions and health problems like increased blood pressure, respiratory depression and urinary tract issues that can lead to incontinence.The warning sought to differentiate between the supervised use of ketamine as a psychiatric therapy administered at clinics and “wellness centers,” and online marketers who prescribe the drug via telemedicine so that buyers can take the drug at home.“Patients who receive compounded ketamine products from compounders and telemedicine platforms for the treatment of psychiatric disorders may not receive important information about the potential risks associated with the product,” the F.D.A. said in its warning.With the exception of esketamine, a federally approved ketamine nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression, the psychiatric use of ketamine is unapproved and unregulated, though so-called off-label use of ketamine is not illegal.Since it was first approved as a battlefield anesthetic in 1970, ketamine has also gained popularity as Special K, a club drug that is usually snorted. More recently, there has been an explosion in injected ketamine-assisted therapy, much of it fueled by a small but growing body of research reporting breakthroughs among patients with hard-to-treat mental health problems.But the regulatory vacuum has also opened the door to mounting abuse. Ketamine can be addictive, and heavy, long-term use can lead to significant health problems, including irreversible urinary tract damage.The pandemic-related boom in telehealth has given rise to a legion of online prescribers that dispense inexpensive ketamine lozenges, tablets or nasal sprays following a brief video interview. Some companies provide as many as 30 doses after one session, which experts say can lead to misuse.“Whenever you have something new, there may be people who run ahead with it. And there will be people who do things based on less evidence rather than more,” said Dr. Joshua Berman, medical director for interventional psychiatry at Columbia University, who helped develop the department’s ketamine program.Executives in the pharmaceutical compounding industry said they welcomed government oversight but expressed concern that a lack of nuance in the F.D.A.’s guidance could lead to overzealous crackdowns by state regulators, who have jurisdiction over the nation’s compounding facilities.“Our concern is that these online sellers are going to ruin it for everybody,” said Peter Koshland, who runs a compounding pharmacy in San Francisco. “Our fear is that regulators, if they perceive a threat to public health, will move to take this amazing medicine away and leave patients at risk.”The F.D.A. alert did not include data about adverse reactions among ketamine users. It cited a single case from April of a patient with post-traumatic stress disorder who experienced respiratory depression after taking compounded oral ketamine outside of a health care setting. The patient’s ketamine blood level, the agency said, was twice the amount typically used in anesthesia.The F.D.A. declined to make an official available for an interview.Dr. Steven Radowitz, chief medical officer at Nushama, a ketamine clinic in New York City that administers the drug via injection, said he hoped the alert would help patients differentiate between companies that sell the drug online and those whose treatments are accompanied by strict supervision. At Nushama, he said, the treatment protocol includes six ketamine treatments over the course of three weeks, and an in-house staff that includes doctors, nurse practitioners and therapists.“No one goes home with ketamine,” Dr. Radowitz said. “And that’s the way it should be.”

A new study based on strands of hair found in a Spanish burial cave reveals that humans living about 3,000 years ago used hallucinogens, likely derived from local plants, as part of their rituals.Bronze Age humans have been credited with a number of civilizational advancements: the invention of irrigation, the wheel, writing systems and the ability to forge weapons and tools from the durable metal that lends the era its name.Now, strands of human hair discovered in an ancient burial cave in Spain suggest another novelty: a proclivity for consuming psychoactive drugs.The hair, found inside wooden containers hidden deep within a sealed grotto on Minorca, an island off the coast of eastern Spain, tested positive for a number of mind-altering compounds, suggesting that the people who lived there 3,000 years ago incorporated hallucinogenic experiences into the rituals of their lives.The findings, published Thursday in Scientific Reports of the journal Nature, provide the first direct evidence that ancient Europeans consumed psychoactive drugs much like their pre-Columbian brethren in Mesoamerica, the researchers said.Elisa Guerra-Doce, the lead author of the study, said researchers were stunned by the results, especially because the cave interiors yielded no detectable signs of the drugs’ presence. A chemical analysis of the hair revealed evidence of three alkaloid substances known to produce altered states of consciousness: ephedrine, atropine and scopolamine.The compounds themselves are produced by flora native to Minorca. Atropine and scopolamine, powerful hallucinogens, can be found in plants in the nightshade family, among them mandrake, henbane and thorn apple. Ephedrine, a stimulant, can be extracted from joint pine.“These findings are so singular,” said Ms. Guerra-Doce, an expert in the anthropology of intoxication at the University of Valladolid in Spain. “Sometimes when people think about drugs, they think it’s a modern practice. These results tell a different story.”Ms. Guerra-Doce said the way the compounds were distributed through each hair strand suggests the drugs were consumed over the period of a year, and well before death.A thorn apple plant in Spain. The powerful hallucinogens atropine and scopolamine are found in plants in the nightshade family such as thorn apple, mandrake and henbane, which are native to Minorca.J.M. Barres/agefotostock, via AlamyThe cave, Es Càrritx, was discovered by spelunkers in 1995 and held the remains of more than 200 people who had been laid to rest over the course of six centuries, with the latest burial in roughly 800 B.C.E. Many were related across multiple generations. Curiously, the cave did not contain the bodies of pregnant women or babies.For anthropologists, the cave’s most significant treasure were the tubular boxes, mostly wooden but some made of antler, that held tufts of hair dyed red. The boxes and their contents survived in large part because the cave’s opening, more than 80 feet beneath the upper ledge of a 300-foot-tall gorge, had been sealed off by rubble that had collapsed long ago.Although there is no way to know why these ancient people were consuming such powerful drugs, Ms. Guerra-Doce noted that the boxes featured patterns that present-day humans might interpret as psychedelic inspired — a series of concentric circles suggesting the hypnotic bull’s-eye drawings of yore.Ancient humans are thought to have used drug plants for both medicinal purposes and religious ceremonies, but until now, much of the scholarship has been based on indirect evidence such as pottery vessels, smoking pipes or plant residue from opium poppies or cannabis found at archaeological sites across Eurasia.Giorgio Samorini, an Italian ethnobotanist who specializes in the archaeology of psychoactive plants and who was not involved in the study, said he was exhilarated by the findings. He said they added to a growing body of evidence suggesting that hallucinogens were an integral part of ancient societies worldwide.He said the context of the findings suggested the drugs were consumed as part of a religious ritual. “This was not a profane purpose of ‘searching for a high’ but more generally the search for existential meaning that has been largely lost to time,” he said in an email.Because the strands lacked hair bulbs, scientists were unable to do a DNA analysis that would allow them to determine the sex of those who had consumed the compounds.The three compounds have a long history of human use. Ephedrine is a stimulant that provides bursts of energy and mental clarity, and it can stave off sleepiness. Atropine and scopolamine are powerful deliriants that can produce hallucinations and out-of-body experiences. In higher concentrations, atropine can lead to respiratory failure, paralysis and death.Although impossible to know for sure, Ms. Guerra-Doce said the presence of these drugs suggested that the people who used them were guided by someone, perhaps a shaman, who understood their powers. “There is so much more we need to learn,” she said.