Carrion begins to decay the moment of the animal's death, and it will increasingly attract insects and breed bacteria.

As a result, said Tony Giannone, the sales director, the birds are less likely to breed bacteria and also absorb no liquid; the taste and texture both benefit.

A contractor later warned in a memorandum that Odwalla's citrus-processing equipment was so poorly maintained it was breeding bacteria in "black rotten crud" and "inoculating every drop of juice you make."

"The R.I.A.A. is breeding antibiotic-resistant bacteria," said Clay Shirky, a software developer who teaches new media at New York University.

But the practice can breed drug-resistant bacteria, which may infect people who eat contaminated meat or food or water tainted by the animals' droppings.

According to one account, he had tried to poison himself with meat he had allowed to fester, being unaware that boiled food could not breed deadly bacteria.

SCIENTISTS at Texas A & M University say they have bred bacteria capable of neutralizing nerve gases as well as a class of similar poisons used as insecticides.

Investigators said that the sludge helped breed acidic bacteria and corrosion that ultimately ate though the pipe.

In bioremediation, either naturally occurring or specially bred bacteria are used to consume contaminants from extracted groundwater.

Ecogen's products are genetically altered rather than genetically engineered, based on breeding a strain of the original Bt bacteria to improve its staying power.