Federal policy to reduce antimicrobial in production of food, consumer products

Because antibiotic resistance is a problem of community or environmental reservoirs of resistance, public action to reduce overall antimicrobial use is imperative. As with public environmental health interventions in other spheres (tobacco control, climate change), legislation is imperative to create environments where the default or easy option is to not use antimicrobials, rather than the converse. In the context of both triclosan and antibiotic additives to livestock feed, public health approaches propsed in federal legislation will be discussed. Leadership around these bills is being provided by Rep. Louise Slaughter, the only microbiologist in Congress.