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Western College of Veterinary Medicine

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https://hdl.handle.net/10388/13025

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Browsing Western College of Veterinary Medicine by Subject "antimicrobial resistance"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    A neglected and emerging antimicrobial resistance gene encodes for a serine-dependent macrolide esterase
    (PNAS, 2023-02) Dhindwal, Poonam; Thompson, Charis; Kos, Daniel; Planedin, Koa; Jain, Richa; Jelinski, Murray; Ruzzini, Antonio
    The accumulation of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in specific environments, and eventually in pathogens, challenges the utility of antibiotics. Thousands of ARGs and resistance-conferring mutations are known and accessible in curated databases. Nevertheless, our catalog of ARGs is incomplete. Blind spots—novel and unreported ARGs—pose unknown risks to human health, animal wellness, and the sustainability of agriculture. A novel and unreported ARG is one that cannot be identified by homology-based inference. These unknown genes are absent from the ARG databases that serve antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance programs intended to inform clinical practice. Growing concerns related to antimicrobial use and efficacy prompted us to evaluate watering bowls as sentinel systems for ARG detection at a beef cattle feedlot. The identification and functional characterization of a neglected ARG that resulted form the basis of this report.
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    Insight into antimicrobial resistance at a new beef cattle feedlot in western Canada
    (AMS Journals, 2023-10) Kos, Daniel; Schreiner, Brittany; Thiessen, Stuart; McAllister, Tim; Jelinski, Murray; Ruzzini, Antonio
    In North America, beef production relies on the administration of antimicrobials to manage disease. Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is the most significant disease of beef cattle, and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to conventional therapies presents an existential risk to animal welfare and food production. While AMR surveillance programs are poised to help facilitate antimicrobial stewardship and decision making at feedlots, monitoring strategies for large numbers of animals at an individual or group level are time consuming and costly. Accordingly, we completed a pilot investigation of feedlot water bowls, which is an understudied interface between cattle and bacteria. By performing cultivation-dependent and cultivation-independent studies, we demonstrate that water bowl-dwelling bacteria can act as sentinel organisms for clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and that cattle have an impact on the microbial communities in the bowls. Moreover, by sampling water at a feedlot site before animal arrival, we detected resistance to two antibiotics: florfenicol and tulathromycin. After just 4 weeks of operation, multidrug-resistant bacteria were routinely found in most water bowls. A comparison of ARGs encoded by five water bowl bacterial isolates along with previously reported source and wastewater metagenomes to those found in BRD pathogens confirmed the utility of using water samples for AMR surveillance.
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    Variety is the hallmark of a regional college's research program
    (AVMA Publications, 2023-11-15) Muir, Gillian; MacDonald, Myrna