WASHINGTON – Pork industry stakeholders have planned a forum to discuss steps pork producers are taking address consumer concerns about the use of antibiotics in pork production.
The forum, sponsored by the National Pork Board in partnership with Atlantic Media, is scheduled for March 16 at the Newseum in Washington. The forum also will be broadcast live via webcast at http://www.porkcares.org/live.
The meat and poultry industry has been challenged to find alternatives to antibiotics medically important to human health due to a growing chorus of consumer groups, retailers, foodservice operators and food manufacturing companies raising concerns that the use of antibiotics in animals produced for food is partly responsible for the spread of antibiotic-resistant microbes. The US Food and Drug Administration responded to those concerns with Guidance 209 and 213 which will change on-farm use of antibiotics starting Jan. 1, 2017.
The forum will provide attendees an overview of pork industry initiatives to advance responsible antibiotic use. Scheduled speakers include:
- Beth Bell, MD – Director, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Georges Benjamin, MD – Executive Director, American Public Health Association
- Steve Clemons – Washington Editor at Large, The Atlantic
- Christine Daugherty, Ph.D. – Vice President, Sustainable Food Production, Tyson Foods
- Barry I. Eisenstein, MD – Distinguished Physician, Antimicrobials, Merck
- Wanda Filer, MD – President, American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
- William T. Flynn, DVM, MS – Deputy Director for Science Policy, Center for Veterinary Medicine, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
- Susan Vaughn Grooters – Policy Analyst, Keeping Antibiotics Working
- Christine Hoang, DVM – Assistant Director of the Division of Animal and Public Health, American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)
- Kathy Talkington – Project Director, Antibiotic Resistance Project, Pew Charitable Trust
