Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 7/26/18


USDA’s Economic Research Service will hold a two-day workshop on the challenges to changing antibiotic use in food animal production and how economics, data and policy issues are affected.

The workshop will address the rapidly changing landscape as private companies and producers consider how and when antibiotics should be used and how to satisfy consumer demand for food products from animals that have been raised with few or no antibiotics. The sessions also will consider how companies can best comply with new U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules on antibiotic use in food animal production, the agency said in a news release.

USDA said the event on Sept. 6-7 in Washington, D.C., is being organized in collaboration with the Farm Foundation and is targeted to academics, analysts, policymakers, non-profit representatives and industry stakeholders. The free workshop requires participants to register here by the end of business on Aug. 30.

According to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Organisation for Animal Health and World Health Organization (WHO), countries are making progress in tackling the problem of antimicrobial resistance, but there is an urgent need for more investment and action in the animal and food sectors.

Bloomberg News this week reported that USDA officials are developing alternative optionsto the WHO’s efforts to limit the use of antibiotics in animals being raised for food.

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