A group of major food companies, retailers, livestock producers and trade and professional associations have announced a comprehensive framework to strengthen stewardship of antibiotic use in food animals. Farm Foundation Board Chairman Joe Swedberg says all the groups came together with guiding principles as well as a unified definition of stewardship of antibiotics.

He says they were able to put out a standard approach on how to deal with antibiotic stewardship for both human and animal health.

Swedberg says each group had their own stewardship definition so they took the best parts of each groups languate and formulized it into a concise definition all the groups can use.

Swedberg says specifics on their framework can be accessed by going to both the Farm Foundation and Pew Charitable Trust websites.