Publications by authors named "Virginia R Fajt"

Objective: To quantify serum amikacin concentrations in dogs undergoing wound management with topical amikacin (45 mg/mL) 3% carboxymethylcellulose hydrogel.

Study Design: Prospective clinical study.

Sample Population: Eleven client-owned dogs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * It discusses how biosecurity can prevent bacterial infections, ultimately reducing reliance on antimicrobial drugs and minimizing the development of AMR in both pathogens and harmless bacteria.
  • * The article also highlights how improved biosecurity could help stop the spread of antimicrobial resistant bacteria and AMR genes into the environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The Dog Aging Project (DAP) is a longitudinal study examining aging in US companion dogs, where missing data pose a challenge to result validity and statistical power. Early recognition and procedural adjustments are vital to address missing samples.

Objectives: This research assesses missing biospecimen samples within the PRECISION cohort of the DAP, aiming to identify contributing factors and propose mitigation strategies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Antibiograms are important tools for antimicrobial stewardship that are often underutilized in veterinary medicine. Antibiograms summarize cumulative antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) data for specific pathogens over a defined time period; in veterinary medicine, they are often stratified by host species and site of infection. They can aid practitioners with empiric therapy choices and assessment of antimicrobial resistance trends within a population in support of one-health goals for antimicrobial stewardship.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is an important component of antimicrobial stewardship. This article discusses how AST methods and breakpoints are developed, describes when AST may or may not be useful in clinical practice, and discusses how to interpret AST results from bacterial isolates from cattle, sheep, and goats. Discussion of when AST is not appropriate or when veterinarians should have low confidence in AST results is also included.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Veterinarians contribute substantially to the health of their patients and enhance the communities in which they live. Delivery of veterinary curricula continues to evolve to ensure that veterinary graduates are prepared to meet their professional obligations on Day One of their careers. In this study, veterinary practitioners were recruited to deliver telehealth case rounds to veterinary students at Kansas State University and Texas A&M University.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Combatting antimicrobial resistance requires a One Health approach to antimicrobial stewardship including antimicrobial drug (AMD) use evaluation. Current veterinary AMD prescribing data are limited.

Objectives: To quantify companion animal AMD prescribing in primary care and specialty practice across 3 academic veterinary hospitals with particular focus on third-generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, and carbapenems.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The objective of this study was to determine the pharmacokinetics of firocoxib after oral administration in un-weaned calves. Eight Holstein calves with a mean age of 36 days and a mean weight of 55 kg were administered a single oral dose of 227 mg firocoxib. The resulting mean dosage was 4.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cephalosporin antimicrobials can be utilized for the treatment of sepsis in neonatal foals, particularly when an aminoglycoside is contraindicated. Some cephalosporins, however, are not utilized because of cost, sporadic availability, or uncertainty about efficacy. The plasma disposition of ceftazidime, a third-generation cephalosporin with a broad spectrum of activity against a wide variety of gram-negative bacteria and minimal renal side effects has not been reported in neonatal foals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Carbapenem resistance has been found in farm animals and their environments in the U.S., despite these drugs not being approved for use in food animals.
  • * The study investigates how older β-lactam antibiotics, which are approved for food animals, might contribute to increased resistance to critical antibiotics like carbapenems.
  • * Experiments measured the growth rates of various E. coli strains with different resistance genes in the presence of antibiotics, revealing significant differences in growth depending on the type of beta-lactam resistance present.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The objective of this study was to determine the renal clearance of flunixin and meloxicam in pigs and compare plasma and urine concentrations and tissue residues. Urine clearance is important for livestock show animals where urine is routinely tested for these drugs. Fourteen Yorkshire/Landrace cross pigs were housed in individual metabolism cages to facilitate urine collection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The objective of this study was to determine the likelihood that swine treated with flunixin meglumine could contaminate their environment, which could cause untreated swine housed in the same pen to ingest or absorb enough drug to be detected in their urine. Currently, any detectable level of flunixin found in the urine of pigs exhibited at livestock shows in Texas can disqualify the exhibitor. We conducted 2 trials in this study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Critically appraised topics (CATs) are evidence syntheses that provide veterinary professionals with information to rapidly address clinical questions and support the practice of evidence-based veterinary medicine (EBVM). They also have an important role to play in both undergraduate and post-registration education of veterinary professionals, in research and knowledge gap identification, literature scoping, preparing research grants and informing policy. CATs are not without limitations, the primary one relating to the rapid approach used which may lead to selection bias or restrict information identified or retrieved.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pain management in rabbits can be difficult because they are adept at hiding pain and can be stressed by handling and restraint for injection. The use of opioid analgesics with prolonged durations of activity could alleviate pain, but associated adverse effects including gastrointestinal ileus, inappetence, and tissue reactions have been reported. In this study, we compared gross tissue reactions at the site of injection, food consumption, and fecal production after single injections of buprenorphine HCl (Bup; = 7), sustained-release buprenorphine (BupSR; = 8), and high-concentration buprenorphine (BupHC; = 7) during the first 3 d after minor survival surgery.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To compare analgesic efficacy and fetal effects between transdermal administration of fentanyl and IM administration of buprenorphine in pregnant sheep.

Animals: 12 healthy pregnant ewes.

Procedures: Before study initiation, each ewe was confirmed pregnant with a single fetus between 113 and 117 days of gestation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To determine oxytetracycline concentrations in plasma and in fluid from (CPT)-inoculated tissue chambers (used as experimental abscess models) and uninoculated (control) tissue chambers in sheep after IM or local administration of the drug and to investigate whether CPT growth was reduced or eliminated by these treatments.

Animals: 10 clinically normal female sheep.

Procedures: Sterile tissue chambers were surgically implanted in both paralumbar fossae of each sheep; ≥ 2 weeks later (day -6), 1 randomly selected chamber was inoculated with CPT, and the opposite chamber was injected with sterile growth medium.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Recent state and federal legislative actions and current recommendations from the World Health Organization seem to suggest that, when it comes to antimicrobial stewardship, use of antimicrobials for prevention, control, or treatment of disease can be ranked in order of appropriateness, which in turn has led, in some instances, to attempts to limit or specifically oppose the routine use of medically important antimicrobials for prevention of disease. In contrast, the AVMA Committee on Antimicrobials believes that attempts to evaluate the degree of antimicrobial stewardship on the basis of therapeutic intent are misguided and that use of antimicrobials for prevention, control, or treatment of disease may comply with the principles of antimicrobial stewardship. It is important that veterinarians and animal caretakers are clear about the reason they may be administering antimicrobials to animals in their care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Macrolides are important antimicrobials frequently used in human and veterinary medicine in the treatment of pregnant women and pregnant livestock. They may be useful for the control of infectious ovine abortion, which has economic, animal health, and human health impacts. In this study, catheters were surgically placed in the fetal vasculature and amnion of pregnant ewes at 115 (±2) days of gestation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Tritrichomonas foetus is a sexually transmitted protozoon that causes reproductive failure, among cattle, so disruptive that many western US states have initiated control programs. Current control programs are based on the testing and exclusion of individual bulls. Unfortunately, these programs are utilizing screening tests that are lacking in sensitivity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Previously we showed therapeutic efficacy of unprotected miR-124 in preclinical murine models of glioblastoma, including in heterogeneous genetically engineered murine models by exploiting the immune system and thereby negating the need for direct tumor delivery. Although these data were promising, to implement clinical trials, we required a scalable formulation that afforded protection against circulatory RNases.

Methods: We devised lipid nanoparticles that encapsulate and protect the miRs from degradation and provide enhanced delivery into the immune cell compartment and tested in vivo antitumor effects.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The AAVMC has prioritized diversity as one of its core values. Its DiVersity Matters initiative is helping veterinary medicine prepare for the changing demographics of the United States. One example of the changing demographics is the growing Hispanic population.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Large animal veterinarians carry drugs in their practice vehicles in storage areas that are not typically refrigerated. The most common upper limits of manufacturers' storage temperatures for United States (U.S.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Deep digital septic conditions represent some of the most refractory causes of severe lameness in cattle. The objective of this study was to determine the distribution of tulathromycin, gamithromycin and florfenicol into the synovial fluid of the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint of cattle after single subcutaneous administration of drug to evaluate the potential usefulness of these single-dose, long-acting antimicrobials for treating bacterial infections of the joints in cattle.

Results: Twelve cross-bred beef cows were randomly assigned to one of the drugs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Matrix metalloproteinase-9 is elevated within the acutely injured murine spinal cord and blockade of this early proteolytic activity with GM6001, a broad-spectrum matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor, results in improved recovery after spinal cord injury. As matrix metalloproteinase-9 is likewise acutely elevated in dogs with naturally occurring spinal cord injuries, we evaluated efficacy of GM6001 solubilized in dimethyl sulfoxide in this second species. Safety and pharmacokinetic studies were conducted in naïve dogs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF