You need data to know if interventions to foster the judicious use of medically important antimicrobial drugs are actually adopted and whether they have the desired effect in terms of both antibiotic use practices (also known as stewardship) and managing antibiotic resistance. On Wednesday, the federal agencies at the forefront of the resistance fight — the FDA, USDA  and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — held a public meeting to discuss possible approaches for collecting additional on-farm antimicrobial drug use and resistance data. Read more…