Antibiotics in Food: Can Less Do More?

Organizers

Gary R. Acuff, PhD

Texas A&M University

Gary R. Acuff currently holds the title of Professor of Food Microbiology and Director of the Texas A&M Center for Food Safety. He has been a member of the Texas A&M University faculty for 36 years, and in 2001 was designated a Texas AgriLife Research Faculty Fellow for research leadership. Dr. Acuff served as Head of the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M from 2004–2010. He was President of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) from 2007–2008 and was inducted as an IAFP Fellow in 2013. He was named a Fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology in 2014. Dr. Acuff obtained his BS in biology from Abilene Christian University and his MS and PhD in food science and technology, specializing in food microbiology, from Texas A&M University. His research has focused on improving the microbiological quality and safety of red meat in all areas of production and utilization, and most recent activities have centered on the effective use of surrogate bacteria for validation of process control in Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems.

Robert Brackett, PhD

Illinois Institute of Technology

Robert E. Brackett, PhD, serves as Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Vice President and Director of the Institute for Food Safety and Health (IFSH). In this capacity, he serves on the IIT administrative leadership team, as well as directs the scientific and educational programs at IFSH. Dr. Brackett has over 30 years of experience in food safety research, training, and policy. Prior to coming to IIT, Dr. Brackett served as Senior Vice President and Chief Science and Regulatory officer for the Washington D.C. based Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). Before joining GMA, he served at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FDA CFSAN), where he started as a senior microbiologist in the Office of Plant and Dairy Foods and Beverages in 2000. After several promotions, Dr. Brackett was appointed CFSAN Director, where from 2004–2007 he provided executive leadership to CFSAN's development and implementation of programs and policies relative to the composition, quality, safety and labeling of foods, food and color additives, dietary supplements and cosmetics. Earlier in his career, Dr. Brackett held professorial positions with North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and the University of Georgia. Dr. Brackett is a fellow in the International Association for Food Protection and American Academy of Microbiology and is a member of the International Association for Food Protection, Institute of Food Technologists, the American Society for Microbiology, Association of Food and Drug Officials, AOAC, and the Food and Drug Law Institute. He has been honored with the FDA Award of Merit, the FDA Distinguished Alumni Award, the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service, and the International Association for Food Protection's President's Appreciation Award, and, the William C. Frazier Food Microbiology Award. Dr. Brackett received his doctorate in food microbiology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Sarah Marie Cahill, PhD

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

With a background in microbiology, Sarah Cahill worked in the dairy and beverage sectors before going on to receive her PhD in food microbiology from University College Dublin, Ireland in 1999. She subsequently joined the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy as a young professional under a program aimed at bringing recent highly qualified graduates to work in the United Nations system. She later joined the regular staff of the organization and currently works in the Office of Food Safety in FAOs Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department. She played a key role in the establishment of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) in the early 2000's and is currently the FAO Secretariat, responsible for overseeing the provision of scientific advice on microbiological hazards in a wide range of foods, from fresh produce to meat and fish. She is an active participant in the Codex standard setting processes, facilitating the consideration of scientific advice in international standard setting. In addition she has worked on the provision of scientific advice to other UN agencies (WFP, UNICEF) on the safety of specific foods destined for food insecure and vulnerable populations. Her work also focuses on increasing the accessibility of risk assessment and scientific advice to the FAO and Codex Membership through for example, the development of tools and approaches to support evidence-based decision-making in the wider management of food safety issues. In this context she also supports capacity development activities in member countries, such as the implementation of Codex standards, promoting a food chain approach to food safety management and has provided technical support to some of FAOs country level work on antimicrobial resistance. She is currently bringing her experience in microbiological food safety issues to the FAO work on antimicrobial resistance in the food and agriculture sector and has been involved in the development of FAOs action plan and is currently supporting its implementation.

Bruce Cogill, PhD

Consultant

Bruce Cogill is a consultant in nutrition, food security and sustainable food systems. He was formerly research program leader for Nutrition and Marketing of Diversity, Bioversity International. He has an extensive experience in management, food and nutrition policy, nutrition, sustainable diets, agriculture and environment, research, programs and practice. He holds a PhD and Master's degrees from Cornell University, U.S.A. where he studied International Nutrition and Agricultural Economics and an undergraduate degree from Australia in Food Science and Technology. He has consulted on food and nutrition for Universities, the UN, the World Bank and others. His experience includes appointments as the Chief of Nutrition at USAID Washington where he led the nutrition effort for the Feed the Future and the Global Health Initiative. He was coordinator for the Global Nutrition Cluster at UNICEF where he coordinated over 37 NGOs, academic, UN and technical agencies in the food and nutrition preparedness and response to emergencies. He lead the successful FANTA and A2Z projects and USAID's efforts in research and programming for nutrition and food security, HIV, micronutrients and in the community management of severe and moderate acute malnutrition. He has contributed to strategy developments for large donors and served on technical committees and recently was on the Board of the Micronutrient Initiative, GAIN Alliance, and the Chair of the Steering Committee for the Health and Nutrition Tracking Service at WHO. He has lectured and worked at various universities including Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Tulane, Queensland, Roma Tre, Oxford and others. He has appeared on television news programs and in print as an authority on international nutrition and sustainable diets. He has published in peer reviewed journals and other publications and is the Associate Editor for Nutrition for the Journal for Global Health: Science and Practice.

Jeffrey Farber, PhD

University of Guelph

Dr. Jeff Farber recently stepped down as the Director of the Bureau of Microbial Hazards, in the Food Directorate of Health Canada, where he worked for over 25 years. As Director, Dr. Farber was responsible for leading a dynamic team of about 60 individuals committed to research, risk assessment and policy work related to microbial food safety. His expertise in food safety and public health has led to many global partners in key areas of academia, population and public health, government and industry. Dr. Farber has over 150 publications, plus numerous Book Chapters and has edited 4 books. He was Associate Editor of the International Journal of Food Microbiology for many years and has been on a number of Journal Editorial Boards. Dr. Farber has been instrumental in advancing the development of policy approaches on emerging microbial food safety issues in Canada and at a global level. He has extensive experience working at the international level, in particular with FAO and WHO. Dr. Farber is a Past-President of the International Association for Food Protection, and a member and Treasurer of the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF). He is also a member of the Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Working Group of the New York Academy of Sciences, is on the Board of Directors of the US-based Center for Produce Safety, and was recently appointed to the USFDA Food Advisory Committee. Dr. Farber has received numerous personal and team awards, the most recent being a Science and Technology award from the Canadian Meat Council. Dr. Farber has recently accepted a new job position, and is currently employed as a Full Professor in the Department of Food Science at the University of Guelph, in Guelph, Ontario, where he is head of the Master's in Food Safety and Quality Assurance program and is also the Director of the Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety.

Gilles Bergeron, PhD

The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science

Dr. Gilles Bergeron has worked in international nutrition for more than 25 years. He has extensive experience in nutrition in the life cycle, food security, agriculture/nutrition linkages and monitoring and evaluation. A founding member and Deputy Director of the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) project, he spent 18 years overseeing FANTA's work in policies and programs; nutrition and infectious diseases; maternal and child nutrition; agriculture/nutrition linkages and emergency nutrition response. Prior to joining FANTA, he spent 6 years as Research Fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and 3 years with the Institute of Nutrition for Central America and Panama (INCAP) in Guatemala. He has operated in Africa, Latin America and Asia, and his work has been published in leading scientific journals such as The Lancet, Advances in Nutrition, World Development, the Journal of Development Studies, and Food and Nutrition Bulletin. He received his PhD in development sociology from Cornell University in 1994.

Mireille Mclean, MA, MPH

The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science

Mireille Seneclauze Mclean joined the Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science at the New York Academy of Sciences in 2011 as a Program Manager, and was later promoted to Director. Her activities include managing the growing pool of research grants issues through the Sackler Institute's Research Funds, organizing multi-disciplinary workshops and symposia in the field of nutrition, and supporting the dissemination of research. Prior to this, she spent over 10 years doing fieldwork for several international NGOs intervening in crisis situations. In that role, Ms. Mclean defined and directed the implementation of programs in nutrition, health, food security and sanitation for vulnerable population groups in South East Asia, Africa and the Middle East; managed large grant programs for displaced populations and conducted a number of participatory research assessments and nutritional surveys. She also worked as a Program Coordinator at the Bureau of Public Health in Paris, France, successfully improving the uptake of tuberculosis screening among at-risk population groups. Throughout her work in nutrition and public health, Ms. Mclean is interested in highlighting the importance of implementation, delivery systems, and partnerships to translate science into better outcomes. She holds an MA in Development Economics and International Development from the University of Sussex and a Master of Public Health from the Liverpool Faculty of Medicine.

Speakers

Agnes C. Agunos, DVM, MSc

Public Health Agency of Canada

Dr. Agunos received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1994 from the University of the Philippines, and a Graduate Diploma in Avian Medicine and Pathology in 2004 and MSc (Salmonella control using non-antibiotic alternatives) in 2006, both from the University of Guelph, Ontario. She is a diplomate of the American College of Poultry Veterinarians since 2006 and core-member of the Epidemiology and Diseases of Public Health Significance committees of the American Association of Avian Pathologists. She worked in the Canadian poultry industry as veterinarian/quality assurance manager (Maple Leaf Foods) providing animal health, disease diagnosis and food safety oversight and operational/management support. She was the Lead Veterinarian for Poultry, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs providing oversight to the Ontario Hatchery and Supply Flock Policy, and was involved in poultry health research activities and other poultry industry collaborative programs. She is a past President of the Ontario Association of Poultry Practitioners. In 2009 she joined the Public Health Agency of Canada as co-lead of the poultry farm components of the Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance (CIPARS) and FoodNet Canada, which are voluntary national surveillance program in poultry monitoring antimicrobial use/resistance and pathogen prevalence. She collaborates with various poultry researchers across Canada (e.g., Poultry Health Research Network) and has published primary research and review articles on antimicrobial use and resistance in broiler chickens, turkeys, and minor poultry species, and on-farm sources of Campylobacter in broilers.

Séamus Fanning, PhD

University College Dublin

Professor Fanning was appointed to the Chair of Food Safety & Zoonoses at University College Dublin in 2002. He is attached to the UCD Public Health, Physiotherapy & Sports Science. He holds a PhD degree in molecular microbiology. Currently, his research interests include the application of molecular methods to food safety, applied to the control of zoonotic food-borne bacteria and the protection of public health. A significant part of his work is related to the characterisation of the genetic mechanisms contributing to multi-drug resistance emerging in bacteria of food-producing animal and human origin. Professor Fanning is the Director of the UCD-Centre for Food Safety (UCD-CFS) and has also served as an expert member of a number of WHO/FAO expert groups. Professor Fanning is a member of the editorial boards of four International journals, Applied & Environmental Microbiology, Foodborne Pathogens & Disease, Journal of Food Protection, Microbial Drug Resistance, and Editor for Research in Microbiology, and FEMS Microbiology Letters.

Delia Grace, PhD

International Livestock Research Institute

Delia Grace is an epidemiologist and veterinarian with 20 years' experience in developing countries. She leads research on zoonoses and foodborne disease at the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya. Her research interests include emerging diseases, participatory epidemiology, gender studies and animal welfare. Her career has spanned the private sector, field-level community development and aid management, as well as research. She has lived and worked in Asia, west and east Africa and authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications as well as training courses, briefs, films, articles and blog posts.

William J. Hall

Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom Antimicrobial Resistance Review

William Hall is on secondment as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Review on AMR from HM Treasury, where he has worked as an advisor on government taxation and spending, advised on structural reforms to the UK banking system, and most recently led the work on the Scottish Referendum in the office of Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to HM Treasury. In the work of the Review he is heavily involved in efforts to build an international consensus, as well as leading on a number of policy areas to tackle AMR, including diagnostics, agriculture and vaccines. He is also a Science Policy Fellow at the University of Cambridge.

François Malouin, PhD

Sherbrooke University

François Malouin is professor (microbiology) at the Département de biologie at the Faculté des sciences of Université de Sherbrooke since 2000. He is a microbiologist that has 25+ years of academic and industrial experience in drug discovery for use in humans and food-producing animals. He was recently appointed to the Comité d'experts scientifiques sur la résistance aux antibiotiques de l'Institut national de santé publique du Québec (2011–2015), a committee that is providing recommendations to the provincial government on the matter of antibiotic resistance. Prof. Malouin obtained his bachelor degree (microbiology) at Université de Sherbrooke (1982), an MSc degree in microbiology and immunology at Université de Montréal (1985), a doctoral degree (PhD) in Medical Sciences (Medical Microbiology) at University of Calgary (1988) and did postdoctoral training in the anti-infective research group at Lilly Research Laboratories (Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, USA) from 1988 to 1990. Prof. Malouin was also assistant professor of microbiology at the Faculté de médecine of Université Laval where he had a Fellowship from the Medical Research Council of Canada (1990–1994). He was then recruited by biotechnology companies, first Microcide Pharmaceuticals, Inc., then a sister company, Iconix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (California, USA) from 1994 to 2000, where he was associate director of technology development for the discovery of new therapeutic targets and antibiotics. He was also the co-founder of Ulysses Pharmaceuticals (Sherbrooke, QC). Currently at Université de Sherbrooke, his research projects aim at exploiting virulence genes for the development of new antibiotics, vaccines and non-antibiotic alternatives for applications in human and animal health.

James L. Marsden, PhD

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Dr. James Marsden has over forty years' experience in the food industry with a strong background working with government officials, regulators, and for food companies, trade associations and in academia. He advised the White House on food safety and nutrition and testified on numerous occasions to the United States Congress, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). He served as an official adviser to USDA during the development of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Food Safety Regulation and on the issue of food imports and transportation. After working for several food companies and technology providers, he served as Vice President for Scientific Affairs at the American Meat Institute and President of the AMI Foundation. In 1994, he became the Regent's Distinguished Professor of Food Safety and Security at Kansas State University. He has extensive experience as an educator, inventor and researcher. He is the author of numerous scientific publications, books, book chapters and articles on food safety and writes the popular blog "Safety Zone" published in Meatingplace.

He is responsible for the development of a number of important antimicrobial interventions and holds several food safety related patents. Dr. Marsden has served as an expert and has provided testimony and expert reports in cases involving individual instances and outbreaks of foodborne disease. Specific expertise in control of E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes and Norovirus. He was elected into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame in 2014. Dr. Marsden joined Chipotle in 2016 as the company's Executive Director of Food Safety. He is responsible for directing the food safety programs at Chipotle Mexican Grills, Shop House restaurants and fr Pizzeria Locale. He reports to Chipotle Founder Steve Ells and Co-CEO Monty Moran.

Alan G. Mathew, PhD

Purdue University

Alan Mathew grew up on a grain and livestock farm in Indiana. He earned his BS in Biology, and MS and PhD in Animal Sciences, all at Purdue. During his graduate years and the 12-year interim between the MS and PhD, Alan co-managed the family's swine and grain operations. In 1993 Alan joined the Animal Science faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he was promoted through the ranks to Professor and accepted the position of Head in 2003. While at Tennessee Alan taught courses in Animal Science and the College of Veterinary Medicine and conducted research on foodborne pathogens and antibiotic resistance. He mentored 20 MS and PhD, published 66 research papers, 51 scientific abstracts, and provided more than 40 invited national and international presentations. In 2011 Alan transitioned back to Purdue as Head of Animal Sciences, for which he provides leadership to the department's research, teaching, and extension missions. He has served on the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee, as President of the of the American Association of Animal Sciences Midwest Section, and he currently serves on the Board of the US Pork Center of Excellence and several other advisory boards.

H. Morgan Scott, DVM, PhD

Texas A&M University

Dr. H. Morgan Scott is a graduate veterinarian holding a PhD in epidemiology and post-doctoral training in public health. A professor of epidemiology in the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology at Texas A&M University, he is interested in applying both epidemiological and ecological 'One Health' approaches to characterize and quantify the emergence, propagation, dissemination, and persistence of resistant enteric bacterial strains in integrated populations of animals, their food products, and humans in response to different antimicrobial management and treatment options.

Stacy E. Sneeringer, PhD

United States Department of Agriculture

Dr. Stacy Sneeringer is an Economist in the Technology, Structure, and Productivity Branch, Resource and Rural Economics Division at the Economic Research Service in the USDA. She received a PhD in economics and a master's in demography from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in economics from Wesleyan University. Her research predominantly uses econometric methods to evaluate environmental and public health aspects of livestock agriculture in the U.S. She has published numerous articles in agricultural economics journals and delivered talks to academic departments, think tanks, and government agencies across the world.

Jaap A. Wagenaar, DVM, PhD

Utrecht University

Jaap Wagenaar was trained as veterinarian and completed his PhD study at Utrecht University and the USDA-National Animal Diseases Center, Ames, IA, US. In 1996 he started his research group at the Central Veterinary Institute in Lelystad, the Netherlands, on food safety and in particular on Campylobacter. From 2004–2006 he worked with WHO (Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, and for the Tsunami-relief operations with WHO Indonesia), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, US) and the USDA Western Regional Research Center (Albany, Ca, US). In 2006 he was appointed as chair in Clinical Infectious Diseases at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University. His research group is focussing on Campylobacter and antimicrobial resistance. He is currently coordinator of a large EU-project on antimicrobial resistance (EFFORT). He is member of the WHO-AGISAR-group (Advisory Group on Integrated Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance) and WHO-Global Foodborne Infections Network, a global capacity building network. He is member of the scientific panel of the Netherlands Veterinary Medicines Authority (SDa) and involved in the major reduction of antimicrobial use in livestock. He is director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Campylobacter and of the OIE-reference laboratory for Campylobacteriosis, and is acting frequently as expert for WHO, FAO and OIE.

David R. Wolfgang, VMD, MPH

Pennsylvania State University

David Wolfgang is a 1982 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. He was in private veterinary practice with an emphasis on food animals from June 1982 through October 1995. Since October 1995 he has been Director of Field Investigations and an Extension Veterinarian in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at Penn State. He has been active in local and state veterinary organizations. He was president of the Pennsylvania State Veterinary Medical Association (PVMA) 2006. He served as Chair of the National Mastitis Council-Residue Avoidance Committee (2005–2009). He currently serves as chair of the PA State Board of Veterinary Medicine. In order to more effectively address public sector veterinary health issues (e.g., antibiotic resistance, emerging diseases, on farm food safety) he returned to graduate school and earned his Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree from the Penn State College of Medicine–Hershey in 2014. His primary areas of professional emphasis include: cost effective preventative health and diagnostic programs for livestock species, on farm food safety and quality, animal well-being, and continuing education programs for veterinarians.