Pork Industry Message For Antibiotic Awareness Week: Healthy Animals Equals Safe Foodb

Nov 18, 2015

As part of World Antibiotics Awareness Week, the National Pork Producers Council is highlighting U.S. pork producers’ three-decade commitment to responsible and necessary use of animal health products to keep their animals healthy and to produce safe food. Among those efforts, the U.S. pork industry:

Pork Industry Message For Antibiotic Awareness Week: Healthy Animals Equals Safe Food

1980s

Developed in 1989 the Pork Quality Assurance program to address concerns over antibiotic residues. Today, 99.9 percent of pork tested meets FDA residue standards.

1990s

Established Judicious Use of Antibiotics standards for pork producers to follow.

Supported establishment in 1996 of the federal National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System to track antibiotic resistance in foodborne bacteria from humans, retail meats and food animals. The industry continues to lobby Congress for federal funding for the program.

2000s

Backed in 2002 USDA’s Collaboration in Animal Health and Food Safety Epidemiology pilot program to enhance overall understanding of the epidemiology of antibiotic resistant foodborne bacteria that pose a food-safety risk by monitoring antibiotic use on farm and bacteria on farm and in plants.

Developed in 2005 the Take Care – Use Antibiotics Responsibly program to provide pork producers and their veterinarians principles and guidelines to use when making antibiotic use decisions. FDA, CDC and veterinarians provided input for the program.

Incorporated in 2007 the Take Care – Use Antibiotics Responsibly program into the Pork Quality Assurance Plus program. PQA Plus, which includes producer certification and on-farm assessments, has assessment points on veterinary-client-patient relationships and antibiotic use record keeping.

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Video: Swine Industry Advances: Biodigesters Lower Emissions and Increase Profits

Analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG emissions) in the Canadian swine sector found that CH4 emissions from manure were the largest contributor to the overall emissions, followed by emissions from energy use and crop production.

This innovative project, "Improving Swine Manure-Digestate Management Practices Towards Carbon Neutrality With Net Zero Emission Concepts," from Dr. Rajinikanth Rajagopal, under Swine Cluster 4, seeks to develop strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

While the management of manure can be very demanding and expensive for swine operations, it can also be viewed as an opportunity for GHG mitigation, as manure storage is an emission source built and managed by swine producers. Moreover, the majority of CH4 emissions from manure occur during a short period of time in the summer, which can potentially be mitigated with targeted intervention.

In tandem with understanding baseline emissions, Dr. Rajagopal's work focuses on evaluating emission mitigation options. Manure additives have the potential of reducing manure methane emissions. Additives can be deployed relatively quickly, enabling near-term emission reductions while biodigesters are being built. Furthermore, additives can be a long-term solution at farms where biogas is not feasible (e.g., when it’s too far from a central digester). Similarly, after biodigestion, additives can also be used to further reduce emissions from storage to minimize the carbon intensity of the bioenergy.