Speakers and topics finalised for Antimicrobial Resistance symposium

Together with the Royal College of Pathologists, Royal College of Physicians and the Health Protection Agency, we have finalised speakers and topics for our upcoming joint symposium ‘Antimicrobial resistance in human and veterinary medicine – one medicine, one problem?’ on 2 October 2012.

Symposium sessions will open with Professor Stephen Gillespie, University of St Andrews and Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh), followed by Professor Peter Hawkey, University of Birmingham, Birmingham NHS and the Health Protection Agency, giving a veterinary and medical overview of the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

This will include a qualitative review of antibiotic usage, the prevalence of AMR, and which pathogens are affected in human and veterinary fields.

The symposium is intended for a broad audience, including veterinary and medical scientists and practitioners, those from industry, opinion leaders and others with an interest in AMR.

Next will be a series of short talks on topics relating to the origins of resistance and flow of AMR phenotypes and genotypes between species and the environment.

These will showcase the data providing evidence for and against the transfer of resistance between humans, other animal populations, and the environment.

The talks will be followed by a presentation by Professor Marc Lipsitch, Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Harvard University, on how we quantify the effect of animal antibiotic use on human health.

Further presentations will be given by:

• Professor Frank Aarestrup, Head of the EU Reference Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance, Technical University of Denmark and Professor Peter Davey, Lead Clinician for Clinical Quality Improvement Population Health Sciences Division, University of Dundee on ‘The history of restrictions and their effectiveness in human and veterinary usage’; and,
• Professor Peter Silley, MB Consult Limited and University of Bradford on ‘AMR – the same for humans and other animals?’

The symposium will also be opened for audience discussion.

The day will be hosted by Professor The Lord Trees, past-President of the RCVS and Emeritus Professor of Veterinary Parasitology, University of Liverpool, and Dr Bharat Patel, Consultant Medical Microbiologist, Barts & The London NHS Trust, Royal College of Pathologists and Health Protection Agency.

The symposium is intended for a broad audience, including veterinary and medical scientists and practitioners, those from industry, opinion leaders and others with an interest in AMR.

It will take place from 9.30am on Tuesday, 2 October 2012 at the Royal College of Physicians, London.