The American Meat Science Association (AMSA) is pleased to announce, Dr. Morgan Scott, Dr. Liz Wagstrom, Dr. Kim Friesen and Bert DeVegt will be the featured speakers in the AMSA 70th Reciprocal Meat Conference (RMC) Antibiotic Resistance: The Story, The Impact and What Comes Next Symposium. This symposium will take place at 10 am on Monday, June 19, in College Station, Texas. The speakers in this symposium will focus on the topics listed below:

• Antibiotic Resistance: Contemporary Perspectives on Human and Animal Health: Antibiotic resistance and its effects on both animal and human health illustrate a prototypical “One Health” problem. Causing both food production and public health consequences – antibiotic resistance encompasses a wide array of issues spanning the realm from molecular biology through the social sciences. Evidence for the difficulty in defining a single best “One Health” practice code will be highlighted by Dr. Morgan Scott, Professor of Epidemiology at Texas A&M University, by discussing the rapidly changing landscape of what we know (or believe we know), as highlighted by several recent scientific reports.
• What Do Changes on the Farm and Ranch Mean for Health and Resistance: This presentation will discuss how various antibiotic use protocols impact the development of resistance. Dr. Liz Wagstrom, Chief Veterinarian with the National Pork Producers Council, will explore the influence of changing regulations on animal health and antibiotic resistance.
• The New Frontier:  Production Enhancement to Meet the Global Protein Challenge: Global protein needs will continue to escalate over the next three decades, and these demands will need to be met using reduced antibiotic strategies.  Dr. Kim Friesen, Chief Scientific Officer for NutriQuest, will address how understanding bacterial and viral load in the production system can be used to tailor specific technological approaches to control disease and further increase protein production.
• Phages as Natural Alternative for Antibiotic Use in Animal Health Applications: Phages are the most abundant microorganisms in the world and are used for targeted bacterial control for food safety and human & animal health. In recent studies, Salmonella phages were administered to the milk for young meat calves to determine if mortality could be reduced after the discontinuation of antibiotics resulted in higher mortality rates. Bert DeVegt, Managing Director with Micreos Food Safety, will outline how the use of phages resulted in a shift in the microbiome of calves as observed in improved feed conversion data, reduced mortality and better manure scores.

The AMSA 70th RMC will be held June 18-21, 2017 at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. For more information regarding the AMSA 70th RMC please visit: http://www.meatscience.org/rmc or contact Deidrea Mabry 1-800-517-AMSA ext. 12.