Veterinarians play key roles in mitigating the public health threats posed by foodborne pathogens and the global emergence of antibiotic resistance. These are two distinct yet related issues that both depend on farm-level interventions. Because the use of antibiotics in any setting drives resistance, it is important to be good stewards of these lifesaving resources. To this end, FDA recently issued a 5-year plan outlining concrete agency actions to improve antibiotic stewardship in animal agriculture, and over the past two years, The Pew Charitable Trusts worked with various agriculture stakeholders to reach agreement on the core components and guiding principles underpinning meaningful on-farm antibiotic stewardship. Some of these on-farm interventions, such as improvements in biosecurity, can also have positive impacts on pre-harvest food safety. In fact, contaminated meat and poultry products are thought to be responsible for more than 40 percent of the roughly 3.5 million bacterial foodborne illnesses that occur in the United States each year. While certain interventions and management practices during and after slaughter reduce contamination risks, significant reductions in foodborne illness would require a comprehensive approach to meat and poultry safety that begins at the farm level. A variety of pre-harvest interventions have proven effective, although significant differences in physiology and industry structure among food-producing species mean that no single intervention is entirely successful at combatting all foodborne pathogens in every setting. In this webinar, I will highlight current trends, recent research, and relevant policy changes related to on-farm antibiotic stewardship and pre-harvest food safety.

Provided by Dr. Lindsey Shields
7 PM ET – 8:00 PM ET | 6 PM CT – 7 PM CT

RSVP:  Register

Dr. Lindsey Shields is a board-certified preventive vmedicine veterinarian with 8 years’ experizence in international veterinary medicine and public health. Dr. Shields currently serves as the Surveillance Advisor on the Infectious Disease Detection and Surveillance project, a 5-year USAID funded project aimed at strengthening surveillance and diagnostic systems for infectious diseases in 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Dr. Shields attended Virginia Tech for her undergraduate studies in Animal and Poultry Sciences, and continued there for her DVM. Since graduation, she has worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations based in Italy and Ethiopia, where she provided direct assistance to member countries for controlling zoonotic disease outbreaks and supported the development of early warning systems in East Africa. While at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA, she led outbreak response activities in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and in the USA for infectious diseases including cholera, typhoid, and botulism. Most recently, Lindsey worked at the Smithsonian Institution on training and capacity building programs for emerging infectious diseases and wildlife health. Based in Washington DC, she loves to spend her weekends out hiking or biking with her husband and rescue dog Gizmo.

ABSTRACT:  Over the last 50 years veterinarians have increasingly brought their expertise to wide ranging disciplines from traditional veterinary practice, to specialties like radiology, to human health research and public health. Emerging infectious diseases threaten human (and animal) populations globally, and many of these diseases are zoonotic. Veterinarians can (and should!) play a key role in mitigating the threats of zoonotic diseases. In today’s interconnected world, an outbreak anywhere is a threat everywhere. Dr. Lindsey Shields will present her experiences as a veterinarian in non-traditional settings ranging from providing One Health trainings while working for the United Nations, to serving as an epidemic intelligence officer with the CDC responding to outbreaks of ebola, cholera and botulism worldwide. Join us to hear more about the many roles veterinarians can play in controlling infectious diseases both within and outside of the federal government.

Presentation: Role in Controlling Infections Diseases