Produce Research

STAR-IDAZ: New international research consortium on animal health

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 02:07:03 GMT

Animal diseases can cause serious social, economic and environmental damage, impact on animal welfare and in some cases directly threaten human health. These diseases ignore borders. Livestock provides one third of human protein intake so working together to develop new control methods for the disease problems that are common to countries around the world is essential to protect food security and the livestock industries. Sixteen organisations from twelve countries have so far committed to jointly invest around EUR 2 billion in the next five years through a new international research consortium on animal health. A launch event took place on 27 January in Brussels.

An exciting initiative to coordinate animal health research globally was launched in Brussels in January with talks from Phil Hogan, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Monique Eloit, Director General, World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and Professor Ian Boyd, Chief Scientific Adviser for the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). This new initiative, which builds on the success of the EU-funded STAR-IDAZ Project (Global Strategic Alliances for the Coordination of Research on the Major Infectious Diseases of Animals and Zoonoses), aims to deliver measurable advances in the control of animal diseases through the alignment of both public and privately funded animal health research programmes around the world.

The Consortium includes research funders and programme owners from Europe, Asia, Australasia, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East as well as international organisations and the representation of veterinary pharmaceutical companies. Together, they have committed a total budget in the region of EUR 2 billion to invest over a five year period

to 2021.

Sixteen organisations from twelve countries have signed so far and the consortium is likely to enlarge in the coming weeks and months. These partners have agreed to coordinate their research programmes to address agreed research needs, share results and together deliver new and improved animal health strategies for at least 30 priority diseases, infections or issues, including candidate vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics and other animal health products, procedures and/or key scientific information and tools to support risk analysis and disease control.

To achieve these goals Working Groups consisting of researchers will be established for each of the priority topics. Guided by a Scientific Committee, these groups will perform research gap analyses. The Scientific Committee, consisting of independent experts, will present the gap analyses to the IRC partners and advise them on how their programmes might be aligned. A Scientific Secretariat will be established to provide the Working Groups with literature reviews and support them in their gap analyses, support the Scientific Committee and Executive Committee logistically and facilitate information exchange within and between all three levels.

IRC Partners to date include Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, the Netherlands, Tanzania, the United Kingdom and United States as well as Zoetis and Observers in the European Manufacturers of Veterinary Diagnostics (EMVD) and HealthforAnimals.

The priority topics identified for initial collaboration include:

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Immunology/vaccinology (tools and technologies)

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Diagnostics (tools and technologies)

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Innovative anti-infective approaches, including alternatives to anti-microbial agents

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Influenza

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Bovine Tuberculosis

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Foot and Mouth Disease

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Brucellosis

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African Swine Fever

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Emerging issues

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Vector-borne diseases

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Coronaviruses

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One Health (including food-borne pathogens and AMR)

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Mastitis

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Animal genetics/genomics for animal health

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Foresight

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Epidemiology

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Helminths

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Rabies

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Respiratory Diseases of Pigs

View the IRC governance documents

here

and for further information

contact the STAR-IDAZ Project Manager, Luke Dalton ( Luke.Dalton@Defra.gsi.gov.uk ).

New NARMS report: Progress on fighting resistance

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 02:06:47 GMT

The FDA recently released its 2014-2015 Retail Meat Interim Report , summarizing data from the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS). The report focuses specifically on salmonella, one of the most common food-borne pathogens associated with eat and one of particular concern in terms of antibiotic resistance.

Also, for the first time, the analysis includes whole-genome sequencing data for Salmonella, a new component of NARMS surveillance that allows FDA to report isolate-level data on its website.

The retail meat arm of the NARMS program collects samples of grocery store chicken, ground turkey, ground beef and pork chops, and tests for non-typhoidal Salmonella, Campylobacter, Escherichia coli and Enterococcus, to measure and monitor trends in pathogen resistance to antibiotics used in human and veterinary medicine.

Encouraging trends in the new interim report include:

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The prevalence of Salmonella in retail poultry is at its lowest since testing began in 2002. In ground turkey, the prevalence of Salmonella has declined from a high of 19% in 2008 to 6% in 2014. In retail chicken over the same time period, it has dropped from 15% to 9%.

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Salmonella resistance to ceftriaxone from chicken sources continued to decline steadily from a high of 38% in retail chicken meats in 2009 to 18% in 2014, and 5% during the first half of 2015. In ground turkey isolates, ceftriaxone resistance was detected in 7% of 2014 isolates and 4% of 2015 isolates collected through June, which represents an 80% decline since 2011 when resistance peaked at 22%.

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Ciprofloxacin-resistant Salmonella was not isolated from poultry and beef, while a single isolate was found in pork. Ciprofloxacin belongs to the fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics, which are classified as critically important for the treatment of Salmonella infections.

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All Salmonella from retail meats were susceptible to azithromycin, a medically important antibiotic used in treatment of Salmonella and other intestinal pathogens.

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Multidrug resistance in Salmonella continued to decline. In 2011 testing, the NARMS program found multidrug resistance in bacteria from show a downward drift in 45% of chicken samples and 50% of turkey. During the first half of 2015, the data show a prevalence of 20% and 36% in chicken and turkey respectively.

The report also notes some findings of concern, including:

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FDA identified the first instance of ciprofloxacin resistance in an isolate from retail pork, and identified the genes associated with this resistance for future tracking.

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One ceftriaxone-resistant retail chicken isolate from 2014 had the extended-spectrum Œ≤-lactamase (ESBL) gene blaCTX-M-65. This is the first time this important class of resistance gene was detected in the U.S. This ESBL gene causes resistance to Œ≤-lactam antibiotics, including third generation cephalosporins.

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Sampling revealed three isolates of Salmonella serotype Dublin ground beef in 2014. While uncommon, those isolates exhibited multidrug resistance, with resistance to nine to 12 of14 drugs tested.

According to the interim report, whole genome sequencing (WGS) of pathogens provides power to greatly enhance diagnosis, tracking and treatment. WGS has become an inexpensive and rapid tool for characterizing bacteria, with potential to replace a number of long-standing laboratory methods.

For the first time, FDA has included comprehensive WGS in this NARMS report, listing the antimicrobial resistance genes and resistance-associated mutations for Salmonella. The report notes that WGS helped identify antibiotic resistant genes in the form of diverse quinolone resistance mechanisms. Also, the WGS data has allowed FDA to understand the mechanisms underlying each of the resistance phenotypes observed, and how they differ by source. For instance, the predominant Œ≤-lactamases in ground turkey and pork chop isolates were blaTEM enzymes, the report notes, while blaCMY were more prevalent in retail chicken and ground beef isolates,.

Read more from the FDA .