Outcomes from Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics and Medact Conference 2016

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On the 14th April 2016, Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics and Medact jointly hosted a conference, bringing together multi-disciplinary stakeholders; from policy-makers, health professionals, livestock farmers and veterinarians, to scientists, civil-society and environmental groups, to explore practical steps to reduce farm antibiotic use.

The Alliance to Save our Antibiotics unveiled their new report at the conference, showing that the effectiveness of fluoroquinolone antibiotics, which are classified as critically important in human medicine, is being undermined by their continued use in poultry.

“It is tempting to look for win-win solutions, but the changes required will inevitably lead to a differential distribution of costs and benefits across different groups. This is ultimately a complex and political challenge, and we need to get the right balance between science, evidence, normative principles and ethics.”

Concluding remarks by Dr David McCoy, Director of Medact

In the Media

The conference gained initial media coverage in The Guardian, Farmer’s Weekly, Global Meat News and the Grocer. Since it has re-featured in Farmer’s Weekly as well as being covered by Poultry World and Farm Business.

Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics press release can be viewed here.

Conference content

To recap what happened on the day you can download the agenda and speaker biographies. Copies of the speakers presentations can also be accessed below:

Video footage to follow

For more information about Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics please contact Emma [email protected]

The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics is a coalition of health, medical, environmental and animal welfare groups campaigning to stop the overuse of antibiotics in animal farming. It was founded by Compassion in World Farming, the Soil Association and Sustain and is supported by the Jeremy Coller Foundation

Medact is a London-based global health charity whose goal is to inspire and enable health professionals to act on the social, political, ecological and economic determinants of health and health inequality. Its work with Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics is part of a larger body of work supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation