In agricultural animal-rearing, antibiotics have been used for some years, controversially, to promote growth and increase profits. Could the same principle apply to humans? An international team of authors, acknowledging the important link between sustained growth and favourable health outcomes, examined the evidence for whether this principle could apply to children in developing countries (Gough EK and colleagues. BMJ 2014;348:g2267). Perhaps surprisingly, they found 10 trials of sufficient quality, spanning 6 …