I penned this blog at 35,000 ft. as I flew to Atlanta, GA, for the National Institute for Animal Agriculture's (NIAA) conference on the use of antibiotics in animals raised for food — the fourth annual effort.

The conference was immediately preceded by a three-hour session involving state health and agriculture officials and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (and me) discussing the Food & Drug Administration's guidance documents 209 and 213 and the veterinary feed directive, along with recent CDC and World Health Organization reports on antibiotic resistance.

The actual NIAA conference that followed included presentations by Keep Antibiotics Working, the Vancouver Health Authority, the Public Health Agency of Canada, FDA, CDC, a pediatrician from the University of Pennsylvania and many academics from land-grant universities. In other words, they were looking for a balanced, open discussion with all parties represented.

To read more about antibiotic misconceptions, click here.

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