There is no question that antibiotic availability and use will be important issues in the coming years. The AABP presented a general session at the Spokane meeting on this subject, and a session on food safety issues. It is important to keep this issue in perspective. CDC (Center for Disese Control) recognizes that a lot of antibiotic resistance, maybe most of it, comes from misuse of antibiotics in humans. They have some campaigns going to try to modify physicians' prescribing practices and reduce the expectation of patients that they will get antibiotics for every cold and earache. However there are pathogens, such as Campylobacter and Salmonella, that are primarily food- borne, and come primarily from foods of animal origin. Almost all epidemics of those pathogens are traced to food or water. Antimicrobial resistance in those bacteria can plausibly be affected by antimicrobial use in the animals. The fact that some pediatricians overprescribe amoxicillin in kids does not reduce veterinarian's obligation to use antibiotics in such a way as to minimize antimicrobial resistance in food-borne pathogens.

This issue will affect future availability of antimicrobials for all classes of animals (including pets). Several groups (AVMA, AABP, the Academy of Vet Pharmacology, and universities) are working on defining what prudent use of antimicrobials is. Some decisions will doubtless have to be made before every question has been answered by research.

FSnet is a free daily email news synopsis on food safety issues.

FSnet is produced by researchers at the Agri-Food Risk Management and Communications Project at the University of Guelph, is edited by Douglas Powell and Amanda Whitfield , and is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Health Canada, the Australian Meat Research Corp., the U.S. National Food Processors Association, the U.S. National Pork Producers, AGCare (Agricultural Groups Concerned About Resources and the Environment), Monsanto Canada, Hedley Technologies Inc., Ag-West Biotech Inc., Qualicon, L.L.C., DeKalb Canada Inc., Pioneer Hi-Bred Limited (Canada), the U.S. National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Novartis Crop Protection Canada, Maple Leaf Meats/Poultry, Caravelle Foods, CKE Restaurants Inc., the Rutgers University Food Safety Extension Program, the Ontario Soybean Growers Marketing Board, the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, and the Agricultural Adaptation Council (CanAdapt Program).

To subscribe to the html version of FSnet, (subscription is free) send mail to:
listserv@listserv.ksu.edu
leave subject line blank
in the body of the message type:
subscribe fsnet-L firstname lastname
i.e. subscribe fsnet-L Doug Powell
(replace fsnet-L with fsnettext to subscribe to the text version)

To unsubscribe to the html version of FSnet, send mail to:
listserv@listserv.ksu.edu
leave subject line blank
in the body of the message type: signoff fsnet-L
(replace fsnet-L with fsnettext to unsubscribe from the text version)