Elanco Animal Health will participate in the White House Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship where Elanco President Jeff Simmons will be one of the panelist. Concurrently, Simmons will unveil the company’s multi-faceted approach to combat the growing concern about antibiotic resistance.

Simmons said this is about “One Health – not just animal health, but this work creates healthy food, ensures the health of people and protects the planet.”

Elanco has committed to an eight-step antibiotic stewardship plan that ensures the responsible use of antibiotics, reduces shared-class antibiotic use and replaces antibiotics with alternatives.

In one year, Elanco will host an animal health accountability summit to provide a progress report on our effort to deliver non-antibiotic alternatives. Along the way, we will collaborate with customers, academics and appropriate regulatory authorities, which will include establishing an expert advisory panel. Elanco will also collaborate with our industry association and other technology companies to advance this effort as quickly as possible.

It is important that we don’t enact regulations or policies that move faster than available science, which could jeopardize animal health as well as food safety and food security. Setting timelines without solutions could be dangerous, compromising animal welfare. Policies that require complete elimination of all antibiotics in animal production aren’t right for the animal and they aren’t right for the consumer either. We must take a pragmatic approach that doesn’t put animals at risk.