I find myself sitting at Dulles International Airport, waiting for a delayed flight to arrive from Tampa to take me home in a big, long metal tube, and just remembered I owe Janie a blog for Monday.

So here goes a last minute effort to inform and entertain.

I was in the D.C. area for the sixth annual conference on antibiotic use in animals raised for food sponsored by the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA). I have attended the last four and participated in the previous conferences as a speaker, moderator and/or program planning committee. NIAA is doing good work in this area, bringing together animal ag producers, public health folks, MDs, academicians, DVMs, communicators and consumer advocacy groups.

Here are a few take home facts and quotes I heard.

From Christine Daugherty, Senior VP at Tyson Foods, whom I used to work with while serving on Tyson’s Animal Well Being Advisory Panel:

In 1984 there were 4.7 Billion hungry people on the globe we call Earth.
Today there are 7.5 Billion and in 2050 it is estimated there will be 9 Billion, double the number from just 66 years before.
But there will be no more land or water on which to grow food, including protein sources. How will we feed 9 billion people if technology is restricted by an unknowing consumer, or even worse, an unknowing political body (my thoughts, not Chris’s)?
Hunger and starvation create unrest and war.
Two percent of Americans are farmers and ranchers and 15 percent are in the business of producing, processing and selling food. Younger consumers (the millennial generation), however, are three generations removed from the farm and these millennials want their information NOW, and use their phones and iPads to get it.

Google antibiotic resistance and see what you get. That is what they are doing and that is how they get informed.

Another speaker said millennials are “digital natives” but we old folks are “digital immigrants.”

A few more take home quotes from other speakers:

A person with a full stomach has many problems; a person with an empty stomach has only one.
Keep food safe, and antibiotics effective.
The groups that don’t want us to consume meat and poultry products as our protein source will spend a billion dollars to make one point while animal agriculture will spend one dollar to try and make a billion points.
Thirty percent of antibiotics prescribed by MDs are unnecessary and not indicated, but DVMs all took an oath to protect animals and the public health, so with the advent of the Veterinary Feed Act on January 1, 2017, everything will be OK. (Again, my interpretation of the messaging.)
MDs will succumb to pressure from a mom with a crying, febrile child, but DVMs will be able to stand up to a CEO of a major protein company and say, “No antibiotics necessary.” (Same disclaimer)
For persons returning from a weeklong trip to parts of India, where antibiotics can be purchased over the counter, 87 percent will be colonized by an ESBL (Extended Spectrum beta-Lactamase producing organism) and it will take upwards of a year to be rid of that bug that could kill them. Trust me; you don’t want this stuff on or in your body.
Finally, the CDC says, to prevent Salmonella infections, “Don’t kiss your chickens.”

Bits and pieces on antibiotics use from the NIAA

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