What is the pharmaceutical industry doing, and what does the pharmaceutical industry want from animal science...

Perceived contemporary issues are 1) food safety and food healthfulness, 2) environment, 3) sustainability, 4) biotechnology, 5) animal well-being, 6) animals as food, and 7) research funding. Food safety is the paramount contemporary issue, and environment and sustainability issues can be considered as a single issue. Biotechnology, animal well-being, and animals as food are addressed in this paper as separate issues, but they can be considered as components of food safety and healthfulness. The pharmaceutical industry addresses these issues by providing safe and effective products to the livestock industry. These products are used to treat and prevent disease and to increase livestock production efficiency. These products contribute to a safe food supply, enhance protection of the environment, and increase the sustainability of animal agriculture through increased efficiency of livestock production. The pharmaceutical industry wants the following from animal science departments: 1) students skilled in deductive and inductive thinking and communicating to peers and the public; 2) regional research on food safety, such as irradiation, steaming of carcasses, E. coli contamination, antibiotic resistance, production facilities, and carcass contamination; 3) improved research to identify the food values of animal products and effective communication of that research to the public; 4) research on topics having the greatest potential to increase efficiency of animal production consistent with a positive impact on the environment and sustainability of animal production; 5) leadership in developing and using technologies such as biotechnology, not only as descriptors of biological processes, but as technologies to test hypotheses leading to new understandings of biology; 6) research on animal well-being and production facilities that foster animal well-being; 7) research and education on ethical and moral aspects of animals as food through encouragement of one or more staff members to become effective animal science department spokespersons; and 8) active participation in activities such as FAIR 95, Federation of Animal Science Societies, and multidepartmental and(or) interdisciplinary programs.