Environmental surfaces can serve as reservoirs for pathogens and antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria in healthcare settings. Although active surveillance programs are used in veterinary and human healthcare, unconventional settings like zoological facilities are often overlooked, even though antimicrobials are used to maintain the health of their animal collections. Here, we used electrostatic cloths to conduct active environmental surveillance over a 2-year period at two zoological institutions to determine contamination prevalence of human-only and mixed animal-human touch environments with AMR bacteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To estimate the prevalence of extended-spectrum cephalosporin-, carbapenem-, and fluoroquinolone-resistant bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae in the feces of hospitalized horses and on hospital surfaces.
Sample: Fecal and environmental samples were collected from The Ohio State University Galbreath Equine Center (OSUGEC) and a private referral equine hospital in Kentucky (KYEH). Feces were sampled within 24 hours after hospital admission and after 48 hours and 3 to 7 days of hospitalization.
Abstract: Salad vegetables purchased from farmer's markets and grocery stores in central Ohio during the summers of 2015 and 2016 were tested for the presence of Enterobacteriaceae resistant to extended-spectrum cephalosporins and carbapenems, Salmonella contamination, and coliform bacterial counts. A total of 364 samples were collected from 36 farmers' markets and 33 grocery stores. Using selective media, we found 23 (6.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWastewater flows from metropolitan areas, especially those with healthcare inputs, can serve as transport reservoirs for the dissemination of clinically-relevant antimicrobial resistant bacteria (ARB) such as carbapenem- (CR) and colistin-resistant (CoR) strains. Pulsed electric field (PEF) is an emerging wastewater management tool for reducing bacterial loads without generating environmentally harmful byproducts, but it's ability to reduce ARB and their genetic determinants is not well reported. We collected 86, 10-L raw wastewater influent samples from a large metropolitan wastewater treatment plant in Columbus, Ohio and subjected them to low (34 kV cm for 67 μsec) and high (36 kV cm for 89 μsec) PEF treatment.
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