Development and Implementation of a National Center of Excellence in Dairy Production Medicine Education for Veterinary Students: Description of the Effort and Lessons Learned.

The need for consortial programs to provide advanced education in food animal veterinary production medicine has been recognized and lauded for nearly three decades. This article describes one effort to create a dairy production medicine curriculum funded by a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Higher Education Challenge Grant. This National Center of Excellence in Dairy Production Medicine Education for Veterinarians is housed at the Dairy Education Center of the University of Minnesota and the project was a collaboration of the University of Minnesota, the University of Illinois, the University of Georgia, and Kansas State University. The article reviews the need for innovative ways to educate students who will optimally serve the dairy industry, provides a broad overview of the process of developing and delivering the eight-week dairy production medicine curriculum, and describes the challenges faced and lessons learned as a result of offering such a program.

Impact of added copper, alone or in combination with chlortetracycline, on growth performance and antimicrobial resistance of fecal enterococci of weaned piglets.

Studies suggest a link between added copper (Cu) and co-selection of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Enterococcus spp., but data are inconsistent. This study aimed to assess the impact of added Cu, alone or with a feed-grade antimicrobial, on growth performance, transferable Cu resistance gene (tcrB) prevalence, abundance of tcrB in fecal community DNA, and AMR in fecal enterococci in weaned piglets. A total of 320 barrows (DNA 200 × 400, DNA Genetics) weaned at approximately 21 d of age with 7.4 kg (7.4 ±â€…0.06 kg) BW were used in a 28-d study. Piglets were fed a common non-medicated diet for 7 d of acclimation. Treatments were arranged in a 2 × 2 factorial design with main effects of added Cu (0 vs. 200 mg/kg Cu from Cu sulfate) and chlortetracycline (0 vs. 440 mg/kg CTC). Growth performance and fecal samples were obtained on days 0, 14, and 28. There was no evidence (P > 0.05) for Cu and CTC interaction in growth performance. Pigs fed diets with added Cu had increased (P < 0.05) ADG and ADFI from days 0 to 14, with no evidence for differences (P > 0.05) from days 15 to 28 and 0 to 28. Pigs fed diets with CTC had improved (P < 0.01) ADG, ADFI, and G:F from days 0 to 28. Prevalence of tcrB-positive enterococci was not affected by the addition of Cu and/or CTC (P > 0.05). Prevalence of tcrB-positive enterococci was higher on day 14 than other sampling days (P = 0.002). Prevalence of tetracycline resistance gene [tet(M)]-positive enterococci was not affected by treatments or day (P > 0.05). Prevalence of macrolide resistance gene [erm(B)]-positive enterococci had a significant treatment and sampling day interaction (P = 0.021). The abundance of the tcrB gene in feces, quantified by PCR, was not affected by Cu treatment. The median Cu minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of tcrB-negative and -positive isolates were 3 and 20 mM, respectively (P < 0.001). For day 0 and day 28, all Enterococcus isolates were susceptible to gentamicin, kanamycin, streptomycin, daptomycin, and tigecycline, with a majority of isolates resistant to chloramphenicol, erythromycin, lincomycin, linezolid, tetracycline, tylosin tartrate, and Synercid. In conclusion, 200 mg/kg added Cu or 440 mg/kg CTC in nursery diets improved growth performance of nursery pigs. Added Cu, with or without a selection pressure of CTC, did not increase Cu-resistant enterococci and did not co-select resistance to antibiotics.

Optimization of Antimicrobial Treatment to Minimize Resistance Selection.

Optimization of antimicrobial treatment is a cornerstone in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Various national and international authorities and professional veterinary and farming associations have released generic guidelines on prudent antimicrobial use in animals. However, these generic guidelines need to be translated into a set of animal species- and disease-specific practice recommendations. This article focuses on prevention of antimicrobial resistance and its complex relationship with treatment efficacy, highlighting key situations where the current antimicrobial drug products, treatment recommendations, and practices may be insufficient to minimize antimicrobial selection. The authors address this topic using a multidisciplinary approach involving microbiology, pharmacology, clinical medicine, and animal husbandry. In the first part of the article, we define four key targets for implementing the concept of optimal antimicrobial treatment in veterinary practice: (i) reduction of overall antimicrobial consumption, (ii) improved use of diagnostic testing, (iii) prudent use of second-line, critically important antimicrobials, and (iv) optimization of dosage regimens. In the second part, we provided practice recommendations for achieving these four targets, with reference to specific conditions that account for most antimicrobial use in pigs (intestinal and respiratory disease), cattle (respiratory disease and mastitis), dogs and cats (skin, intestinal, genitourinary, and respiratory disease), and horses (upper respiratory disease, neonatal foal care, and surgical infections). Lastly, we present perspectives on the education and research needs for improving antimicrobial use in the future.

Antimicrobial resistance of Enterococcus faecium strains isolated from commercial probiotic products used in cattle and swine.

Probiotics, an antibiotic alternative, are widely used as feed additives for performance benefits in cattle and swine production systems. Among bacterial species contained in probiotics, Enterococcus faecium is common. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), particularly multidrug resistance, is a common trait among enterococci because of their propensity to acquire resistance and horizontally transfer AMR genes. Also, E. faecium is an opportunistic pathogen, and in the United States, it is the second most common nosocomial pathogen. There has been no published study on AMR and virulence potential in E. faecium contained in probiotic products used in cattle and swine in the United States. Therefore, our objectives were to determine phenotypic susceptibilities or resistance to antimicrobials, virulence genes (asa1, gelE, cylA, esp, and hyl) and assess genetic diversity of E. faecium isolated from commercial products. Twenty-two commercially available E. faecium-based probiotic products used in cattle (n = 13) and swine (n = 9) were procured and E. faecium was isolated and species confirmed. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing to determine minimum inhibitory concentrations was done by micro-broth dilution method using National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring Systems Gram-positive Sensititre panel plate (CMV3AGPF), and categorization of strains as susceptible or resistant was as per Clinical Laboratory and Standards Institute's guidelines. E. faecium strains from 7 products (3 for swine and 4 for cattle) were pan-susceptible to the 16 antimicrobials tested. Strains from 15 products (6 for swine and 9 for cattle) exhibited resistance to at least one antimicrobial and a high proportion of strains was resistant to lincomycin (10/22), followed by tetracycline (4/22), daptomycin (4/22), ciprofloxacin (4/22), kanamycin (3/22), and penicillin (2/22). Four strains were multidrug resistant, with resistant phenotypes ranging from 3 to 6 antimicrobials or class. None of the E. faecium strains were positive for any of the virulence genes tested. The clonal relationships among the 22 E. faecium strains were determined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing. A total of 10 PFGE patterns were observed with 22 strains and a few of the strains from different probiotic products had identical (100% Dice similarity) PFGE patterns. In conclusion, the E. faecium strains in a few commercial probiotics exhibited AMR to medically-important antimicrobials, but none contained virulence genes.

Large genomic differences between Moraxella bovoculi isolates acquired from the eyes of cattle with infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis versus the deep nasopharynx of asymptomatic cattle.

Moraxella bovoculi is a recently described bacterium that is associated with infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (IBK) or "pinkeye" in cattle. In this study, closed circularized genomes were generated for seven M. bovoculi isolates: three that originated from the eyes of clinical IBK bovine cases and four from the deep nasopharynx of asymptomatic cattle. Isolates that originated from the eyes of IBK cases profoundly differed from those that originated from the nasopharynx of asymptomatic cattle in genome structure, gene content and polymorphism diversity and consequently placed into two distinct phylogenetic groups. These results suggest that there are genetically distinct strains of M. bovoculi that may not associate with IBK.

Evidence related to the use of ancillary drugs in bovine respiratory disease (anti-inflammatory and others): are they justified or not?

The therapeutic approach for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) includes antimicrobial treatment due to the frequent implication of bacteria. The data concerning the use of ancillary drugs (such as anti-inflammatory drugs or immunomodulators) are scant and often are based on experimental models of BRD. The effect of NSAIDs on pulmonary lesions, despite appearing beneficial, remains to be confirmed in well-designed, long-term trials. The impact on weight gain is inconsistent in these studies. This review emphasized the need for articles concerning clinical trials to clearly state study inclusion criteria, and definitions of clinical scores, relapses, and treatment failures to be properly evaluated.

Antimicrobials and BRD.

Pharmacodynamics is limited with respect to its ability to provide precise predictions to guide therapy because of complications related to the bound versus unbound state of the agent, tissue versus plasma concentrations, drug degradation over time, variations among microorganisms, and factors associated with the specific environment at the infection site. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing is likewise imprecise when applied to an individual animal; however, it is valuable on an animal population basis.

Bovine respiratory disease: pathogenesis, clinical signs, and treatment in lightweight calves.

No matter what disease is being addressed, there are basic steps required for successful therapy. Failure to address each step systematically leaves a gap in the program that eventually shows up as inconsistency or failure in therapeutic efficacy. The focus in this article is on applying these steps in infectious bovine respiratory disease challenges in lightweight stocker calves.