Dr. Mike Apley of Kansas State University spoke to beef producers at Global Beef 500 on antibiotics resistance. His presentation was a survey of the current state of knowledge regarding antibiotic resistance in animals and its connection to food-borne illness.

There have been high profile public information campaigns on this topic that would imply that this is a well understood and well documented problem. In fact the veterinary contribution to antibiotic resistance is still unknown. Furthermore, some antibiotics that have displayed reduced effectiveness due to antimicrobial resistance, such as cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones, have never been used in animal feed in the U.S.