Tag: Science page

Science Page: Antibiotic susceptibility in Pasturella multocida and Streptococcus suis isolated at the Minnesota VDL

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

Antimicrobial resistance has been a preoccupying topic for the past few years. We talked before about what the definition of antibiotic resistance is and how it can be interpreted in two different manners. This week, Dr. Alvarez from the STEMMA lab is reporting the trends in antimicrobial susceptibility observed in strains of Streptococcus suis and Pasteurella multocida isolated at the Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory over the past 10 years. S. suis and P. multocida are common swine pathogens that can cause severe economic losses. Knowing which antibiotics are more likely to be efficient against those bacteria can help in tackling the disease faster.

Key Points:

  • MN-VDL data was analyzed to study antibiotic susceptibility in clinical isolates of Pasteurella multocida and Streptococcus suis from 2006 to 2016.
  • Isolates were highly susceptible to Ampicillin, Ceftiofur, Enrofloxacin and Florfenicol throughout the study period.
  • There were no changes in antibiotic susceptibility against the antibiotics tested routinely across the study period.

The full report can be read here.

Science Page: Are the farms that broke with PED the same?

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

This week, we are proud to introduce a new chart in the Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. This new addition will be able to answer a common question regarding PEDV outbreaks:

Are the farms currently breaking with PEDV the same than the ones which broke in the past?

To interpret the figure, follows these steps.

  • Horizontal axis represents all the farms that borke with PEDV during the season 2016/2017, with each tick representing an individual farm
  • Vertical axis shows the previous seasons with 2016-2017 on top and 2012-2013 at the very bottom.
  • The color of the cell (year : farm) represents the number of outbreaks experienced; darker blue meaning more outbreaks.

Here is the example of this chart presented this week:

MSHMP PEDV chart
Outbreak history of farms that broke during the 2016-2017 season.

Key points:

The farms that break with PEDV do not appear to have a history of PEDV infections in the prior season.

Of the farms that broke during the 2016/17 season, only 5 (6.5%) of them had outbreaks during the previous season and 43 (56.6%) of them had broken at some point since 2013.

Only one farm has had an outbreak every year since the beginning of the epidemic in the US (season 2013/14).

The full report is available.

Science Page: High levels of dietary zinc under a cloud

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

The addition of zinc in pig’s diet had been a common way to fight against enteric issues at weaning without using antimicrobial in some European countries whereas its use was prohibited in others. Earlier this month, the European Union decided to homogenize practices over the continent by banning the use of high levels of zinc in the diet over environmental and antimicrobial resistance concerns. This new legislation will be implemented progressively over 5 years.

Key points from this week edition:

  • High level (2,500 – 3,000ppm) zinc use (HZU) in feed for 1 to 2 weeks post weaning to counter enteric disease is perhaps the most widely adopted alternative to antibiotic use in pig production globally.
  • The European Union just announced a ban on HZU in piglet feed, to be phased in over 5 years
  • Banning of an effective and widely adopted alternative to antibiotics, at least in part due to perceived concerns about coselection of resistant bacteria, adds another layer of complexity to the development and validation of all interventions to replace antibiotics in food animal production.

Read Dr. Peter Davies’ explanation of the reasons behind this ban.

Science Page: Incidence risk and incidence rate

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

This week’s Science page is a follow-up from the one presented last week and focuses on the difference between incidence rate and incidence risk. Those two epidemiological measurements are often mistaken for one another.

Key points from this week edition:

  • Incidence risk is a measure of disease occurrence over a defined period of time. It is a proportion, therefore takes values from 0 to 1 (0% to 100%).
  • Incidence rate takes into account the time an individual is at risk of disease. It is not a proportion since it defines the number of cases per animal or farm time at risk.
  • Incidence risk and Incidence rate are often confused. Incidence risk and rate are numerically the same when the period at risk does not vary across individuals being studied.

Take a look at the complete report to see an example of the difference between incidence risk and incidence rate on farms.

 

Science Page: PRRS cumulative incidence by status

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

How does PRRS incidence vary based on farm status? This is the question answered in this week’s edition of the Science Page. Three different formulas were used to calculate the incidence in each of the group over type. First, the initial number of farms of each status at the beginning of the year was used as the denominator. Then, the denominator was changed to the total number of farms that entered each status since the beginning of the year. Lastly, weekly incidences calculated for each of the group since the beginning of the year were added. Calculations went back for the last 3 years.

Key points from this week edition:

  • Cumulative incidence is higher in those farms that are under status 2, 2vx and 2fvi.
  • The incidence is lower in farms that had recently an outbreak or those that are completely negative.
  • Different ways of calculating incidence by herd status lead to the same overall conclusion.

Take a look at PRRS incidences in farms of group 2 status, vaccinated or inoculated with live virus over the past years.