Education, research key to battling farm-animal antibiotic resistance
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2015 - A task force
of land-grant academics and representatives from veterinary schools has
released a report outlining a national strategy for reducing the role
antibiotics used in food-animal production systems play in the broader
antimicrobial resistance problem.
The report calls for a comprehensive
research and educational agenda and details plans on how to implement it,
according to the task force, which includes representatives from the
production-animal ag community and the pharmaceutical industry.
“We know that antibiotic resistance is
biologically complex and poorly understood,” said Dr. Lonnie King, a former
dean of Ohio State’s College of Veterinary Medicine and former senior official
with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who co-chaired the
task force. “We also know that the scope
and scale of the problem threatens human, animal and environmental health,
nationally and globally. The committee has accomplished some important work,
but now we need to take action. Solving
this problem is going to require focus, resources, collaboration and sustained
effort.”
The Task Force on Antibiotic Resistance
in Production Agriculture was created by the Association of Public
and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the
Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC).
The
report stresses that education and research are the keys to fighting the
problem. It calls for the creation of a model antibiotic resistance curriculum
that is adaptable for undergraduate, graduate and professional students in the
animal and health sciences. Training and educational materials are also needed
for human and animal health professionals, producers and farmers, as well as the
general public, including young people.
Research
should be directed toward improved understanding of antibiotic resistance
mechanisms – such as the transfer of resistance across species and how host
immunocompetence influences the emergence of resistance, the task force said.
It should also aim at identification and development of alternatives to current
antibiotics and improving understanding of the risk that antibiotic resistance
patterns in animal agriculture pose to human health through modeling as well as
longitudinal studies.
The report also contains a strategy for
implementing its educational and research program recommendations. In addition
to hiring a full-time manager, who is already in place, the report calls for a
national consortium of faculty experts to be identified to build out the
programs and to collaborate with federal agency personnel. Pilot projects focused
on combating antibiotic resistance will be created at several large
universities with substantial human medical, veterinary medical, and
agricultural centers, the task force said.
Funding to implement the
recommendations is still uncertain. A spokesman said the group is “exploring
all funding options and looking forward to develop innovative partnerships
between the public and private sectors.” The Foundation for Food and
Agricultural Research, created by the 2014 farm bill, is an example of the kind
of organization the task force hopes to work with.
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