Silly Calendar
What day is it? This calendar can’t be right. There is no way that its only Wednesday. So much has happened already this week. Last night I met my first Senator, John Thune, from South Dakota. Wait a minute…there’s a South Dakota? Who knew. But seriously, he is a Co-sponsor and lead champion of the Veterinary Services Investment Act(S.1709) that would authorize new competitive grant programs to relieve veterinary shortage situations and support veterinary services. Rumor on the Hill is that he may even be a presidential candidate in 2012 – but I’m not sure that I’ve been here quite long enough to spread rumors like that so let’s just keep that on the down low. He was also nice enough to provide Five Guys burgers for everyone in attendance at his event. Very tasty.
Tuesday also marked the start of the CAST Symposium. CAST is the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology. The symposium this week is highlighting various perspectives on sustainability, the ethics of biotechnology, and animal welfare. Speakers range from philosophers to the executive directors of sustainability at large corporations like Wal-Mart and Cargill. I have found the ethical perspectives particularly intriguing and thought provoking. If you are interested (or if you CSU second year PVM students want to be better informed/prepared for Dr. Rollin’s ethics class next semester), Dr. Paul Thompson has just completed a paper for CAST that reviews animal biotechnology techniques, discusses related key ethical issues, evaluates religious views and traditions regarding animal biotechnology, summarizes public opinion research on the topic, and evaluates the challenges and opportunities for the ethical development of agricultural animal biotechnology. Dr. Thompson is a Professor of Philosophy, Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics and Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies at Michigan State University. This paper is Part 9 of a 9 part series, “ANIMAL AGRICULTURE’S FUTURE THROUGH BIOTECHNOLOGY.” It is currently available for free on the CAST website so get it while you still can. Like I said in my first blog, its crazy the kind of stuff you can get for free around here…
Finally, today (its still Wednesday right or maybe its Thursday now – forgive me while I still try to figure out this whole calendar thing.) I went to the House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing on “Promoting the Development of Antibiotics and Ensuring Judicious Use in Humans.” Antimicrobial resistance is a hot topic on the Hill right now. and and we heard testimony from numerous stakeholders in the issue. The hearing concluded with three main recurring points: the FDA must be more flexible in the novel antimicrobial approval process, pharmaceutical companies need more incentive to get back into the antimicrobial development business, and health professionals need to employ more judicious use of antimicrobials. The next hearing on this topic involves use in animal agriculture. I REALLY hope that I’m still here for that discussion because this is an issue that can have a very large impact on the veterinary profession. There are a couple of bills out there now that could really restrict antibiotic usage as we know it in veterinary medicine, namely the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (S.619/H.R. 1549) and Strategies to Address Antimicrobial Resistance Act (H.R. 2400). The AVMA opposes both of these bills largely due to the broad brush approach used in the absence of sound scientific recommendations. These bills, if passed, have the potential to carry some hefty unintended consequences for our veterinary profession and highlight the need to make our voices heard. So PLEASE do not hesitate to get involved. If you do not know how to get involved or are unsure of what it means to get involved, PLEASE contact me and I will pass your concerns on to the right people or tell you how to find them. Thanks for reading and I will talk to you all again soon!