Feedlot Cattle Antimicrobial Use Surveillance Network: A Canadian Journey.

Antimicrobial drugs are important tools for maintaining human and animal health. Globally, antimicrobial use (AMU) in food-producing animals is under increasing scrutiny due to its potential to promote antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Historically, comprehensive Canadian data related to the types of antimicrobial drugs used, extent of use, common indicators of use and the demographics of the cattle populations receiving antimicrobial drugs have been limited, in part due to segmentation in the cattle industry and fragmentation of the drug distribution system.

Delayed diagnosis of fatal pneumonic canine plague: clinical and pathologic features in two naturally infected Colorado dogs.

Background: Plague caused by Yersinia pestis is a highly infectious and potentially fatal zoonotic disease that can be spread by wild and domestic animals. In endemic areas of the northern hemisphere plague typically cycles from March to October, when flea vectors are active. Clinical forms of disease include bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic plague.

Efficacy of three disinfectant formulations and a hydrogen peroxide/silver fogging system on surfaces experimentally inoculated with meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius.

Background: Effective environmental disinfection is necessary to prevent nosocomial infections from meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP). However, there are currently no commercial disinfectant sprays or fogging systems with label claims against MRSP.

Hypothesis/objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of a quaternary ammonium product (QAC), an accelerated hydrogen peroxide product (AHP), a hydrogen peroxide and silver product (HAL), and a hydrogen peroxide and silver fogging system (FOG) against MRSP.

Antimicrobial Use on 36 Beef Feedlots in Western Canada: 2008-2012.

The accurate quantification of antimicrobial use (AMU) in production animals is critical for monitoring trends in exposure to antimicrobial drugs (AMD) over time and examining potential associations with antimicrobial resistance in bacteria. In this study, a census sample of cattle was used to quantify individually-dosed and in-feed AMU as both numbers of animal daily doses (nADD) and total grams of AMD (gAMD) used in cattle placed in 36 western Canadian feedlots between 1-November, 2008 and 31-October, 2012; representing about 21.5% of fed cattle in Canada during that time period.

Calculation of Antimicrobial Use Indicators in Beef Feedlots-Effects of Choice of Metric and Standardized Values.

The potential for antimicrobial use (AMU) to lead to the development of antimicrobial resistant bacteria is an increasingly important priority in human and veterinary medicine. Accurate AMU quantification is essential to assessing the risk of antimicrobial resistance due to AMU. The quantification of AMU in production animals can be difficult, and feedlot beef cattle present a number of unique challenges.

Pneumonic Plague in a Dog and Widespread Potential Human Exposure in a Veterinary Hospital, United States.

In December 2017, a dog that had pneumonic plague was brought to a veterinary teaching hospital in northern Colorado, USA. Several factors, including signalment, season, imaging, and laboratory findings, contributed to delayed diagnosis and resulted in potential exposure of >116 persons and 46 concurrently hospitalized animals to Yersinia pestis.

Duration of serum antibody response to rabies vaccination in horses.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the impact of age and inferred prior vaccination history on the persistence of vaccine-induced antibody against rabies in horses. DESIGN Serologic response evaluation. ANIMALS 48 horses with an undocumented vaccination history.

Detection of equine herpesvirus in horses with idiopathic keratoconjunctivitis and comparison of three sampling techniques.

Objectives: To determine the role of equine herpesvirus (EHV) in idiopathic keratoconjunctivitis in horses and to determine whether sample collection method affects detection of EHV DNA by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).

Animals Studied: Twelve horses with idiopathic keratoconjunctivitis and six horses without signs of ophthalmic disease.

Procedures: Conjunctival swabs, corneal scrapings, and conjunctival biopsies were collected from 18 horses: 12 clinical cases with idiopathic keratoconjunctivitis and six euthanized controls.

Genetic heterogeneity and variation in viral load during equid herpesvirus-2 infection of foals.

Equine herpesvirus-2 (EHV-2) infection has been implicated as a cause of a variety of clinical disorders in young horses, including upper respiratory tract disease, generalized malaise, fever, pharyngeal lymphoid hyperplasia, and lymphadenopathy. Considerable sequence heterogeneity has been demonstrated previously among EHV-2 strains, and individual horses can be concurrently infected with more than one virus strain. In this study, the temporal variation of the viral load and genomic diversity of the glycoprotein B (gB) gene of EHV-2 in the nasal secretions of a cohort of foals was characterized during the first 5 months of life.

The immune response of foals to natural infection with equid herpesvirus-2 and its association with febrile illness.

Equid herpesvirus-2 (EHV-2) infection is ubiquitous in horses. Although EHV-2 infection has been associated with several disease syndromes, its true pathogenic significance in horses remains uncertain. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), another gammaherpesvirus, has been shown to cause febrile illness in humans related to its immunopathologic effects.

Atypical Dermatophilus congolensis infection in a three-year-old pony.

Dermatophilosis caused by Dermatophilus congolensis causes exudative dermatitis in a variety of species. The infection is generally limited to the cutaneous tissues, where infection is acquired from the environment and bacteria penetrate into keratinized epithelium through epithelial disruption. A 3-year-old pony filly was examined for enlarging mandibular lymph nodes during the preceding 10 months.