Definition of "virginiamycin" []

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

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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