Location: Meat Safety and Quality
Project Number: 3040-32000-035-006-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2023
End Date: Dec 31, 2027
Objective:
The objectives of the research are to understand the emergence and ecology of antimicrobial resistance and pathogen colonization in swine production following metaphylactic treatment of nursery piglets, and to evaluate novel management approaches to reduce the need and use of antibiotics in swine production systems.
Approach:
ARS investigators at US Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) will analyze samples collected from swine to determine the distribution of antimicrobial resistance prior to farrowing, the transmission from sow to piglets after farrowing, and potential role that metaphylactic and therapeutic antimicrobials may play in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance in commensal and pathogenic bacteria. Furthermore, novel sampling procedures will be developed and employed to monitor antibiotic resistance throughout the production waste management system and determine if similar antibiotic resistance genes are found in animal and human managers. USMARC will conduct an animal study to determine the potential role for different therapeutic antibiotics to alter gastrointestinal microbial populations and waste water microbial ecologies and the associated antibiotic resistance. ARS scientists will analyze samples of feces, manures, and waste water from swine and the waste systems to monitor for antibiotic resistant E. coli and provide a sub-sample to UNL for sequencing.
