National Pork Board Delivers on Strategy of Responsible Antibiotic Use

September 21, 2016 — 

The National Pork Board is leading the conversation to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria and preserve the responsible on-farm use of antibiotics in pork production. The Pork Checkoff, funded directly by America's 60,000 pig farmers, defined its three-point antibiotic stewardship plan in mid-2015 and has delivered on its pledge of promoting research, pig farmer education and consumer and influencer outreach during 2016. [Source: National Pork Board, September 20, 2016]

“Real, substantive change is underway on pig farms across America with the farmers themselves shaping the discussion around responsible antibiotic use,” said Jan Archer, National Pork Board president and a pig farmer from North Carolina. “We were the first food-animal industry to announce our stewardship plan, which underscores that antibiotics are essential tools for veterinarians and farmers to raise healthy livestock and to produce safe food.”

Archer added that today’s pig farmers stand ready to implement the new, more stringent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules when they take effect on January 1, 2017. These rules – FDA Guidelines 209 and 213 and the Veterinary Feed Directive Rule – ends the use of medically important antibiotics for growth promotion and brings the use of medically important antimicrobial medicines under the direct supervision of veterinarians and dictate they be used only when necessary to ensure animal health.

Toward that end, in 2016 the U.S. pork industry has:

• Collaborated with federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and veterinary and farmer organizations to look for ways to continuously improve responsible antibiotic use.
• Introduced the Don’t Wait… Be Ready! pig farmer awareness and education campaign.
• Invested $750,000 in five research areas ranging from defining alternative antibiotic technologies, studying the environmental fate of antibiotics, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
• Named a third-party panel of non-farm experts to provide objective, independent counsel on the National Pork Board’s current and future research, education and communication priorities.
• Hosted several events and presentations with key influencers and the media to shape discussion around antibiotic use in both livestock and human health.

Materials outlining each of the pork industry’s efforts are available from the Antibiotics Resource Center (http://www.pork.org/antibiotics) and explain how producers should prepare for the expansion of the veterinary feed directive (VFD) and the elimination of growth promotion use of antibiotics deemed medically important to human health. The Checkoff is also introducing a new infographic that highlights the major steps forward in responsible antibiotic use over the past year.