Antimicrobials in Agriculture and Food Production: Use, Overuse & Misuse

Antibiotic Resistance: Policy Challenges and Solutions Lecture Series
When
February 28, 2018, 11:30 am to 1:00 pm
Where
Coffman Memorial Union
Mississippi Room

300 Washington Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Antibiotic Resistance

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most serious threats to global health. Fast-evolving bacteria cause potentially deadly infections such as tuberculosis to develop strains that are no longer treatable by antibiotics. A looming, global health crisis is driven by inappropriate use of antimicrobials, the proliferation of antibiotics in the food supply, and the difficulty of developing new drugs. This lecture series will feature three prominent scholars examining this urgent topic from the perspectives of their fields of study: microbiology and infectious disease, agriculture and food production, and public policy.

Difficulties in characterizing the various types and levels of antimicrobials usage in agriculture and food production as prudent versus imprudent (or injudicious versus judicious) help to illustrate the vexing challenge of defining legitimate practice in agriculture and food production. The corollary to the terms overuse and misuse implies that there are scientifically (or rationally) defensible levels, or types of use, that justify those selection pressures for resistant bacteria that inevitably arise through any use of antimicrobials. Justifiable use policies, therefore, are not for science or industry to define alone; rather, they can only be properly deliberated through broad public discourse that fully considers social norms, moral imperatives (to both humans and animals) and the ethical framework for practice that help appropriately define contemporary antimicrobial stewardship. Prof. Scott will explore these issues using real examples from around the world and the United States, reflecting policy decisions at farm, industry, country and global levels to illustrate these concepts and point to longer term and more sustainable solutions to the problem of antimicrobial resistance.

Dr. H. Morgan Scott is a graduate veterinarian holding a PhD in epidemiology and post-doctoral training in public health. In addition to private veterinary practice, he has worked in both government (food safety surveillance) and academic settings. He is currently professor of epidemiology in the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology at Texas A&M University. He was recruited there in 2014 as part of the Texas A&M University System Chancellor’s Research Initiative and the University President’s Initiative on One Health and Infectious Diseases. He relocated from Kansas State University, where he previously held the E.J. Frick Professorship in Veterinary Medicine. Much of his research emphasis has been on studying factors impacting antimicrobial resistance among commensal and pathogenic enteric bacteria in food animal production systems, with a program spanning the realm from the molecular to the sociological. In particular, he is interested in applying both epidemiological and ecological approaches to quantify the emergence, propagation, dissemination, and persistence of resistant enteric bacterial strains in integrated populations of animals, their food products, and humans. Using this knowledge, he aims to identify opportunities to prevent and intervene against resistance among enteric pathogens in animal agriculture; preferably, by developing readily adoptable and cost-effective management practices suited to modern food animal production systems.

CLE Credits
1.5 Standard CLE credits have been requested (includes Live Lecture and Webcast); Event Code #250239
Reception

Beverages provided; please bring a brown-bag lunch.

Parking Information