An innovative alliance of six veterinary and agricultural colleges is working to reduce residue levels of antibiotics in U.S. meats andmilks. The group -- called the Food-Animal Production Medicine Consortium -- has just begun a food-safety program to train veterinarians in alternatives to the use of antibiotics. For example, in several cases, better sanitation can prevent many of the problems for which antibiotics are used. Another program, still on the drawing board, focuses on environmentally sound animal agriculture. It aims to solve such problems as how to handle solid waste with minimal groundwater contamination as more animals are kept on less land. These education programs are spin-offs of the 3-year-old consortium, which was designed to share faculty expertise and student instruction among six campuses -- UC Davis, University of Florida; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Kansas State University; and University of Nebraska, Lincoln. "It's one of the boldest moves away from the traditional ways of managing health in large populations of animals," says Dr. Bennie Osburn, associate dean of research at the UC Davis veterinary medical school. These are things veterinarians have not done before, and it's proving very successful."