One Health

14 August

A message from Dr. Guy Palmer about World Rabies Day

wsvma   |   Animal Health, One Health

2020 has been an unprecedented year. I have spent my whole career studying infectious disease and, while I knew the risk of a pandemic, that doesn’t make it easier to witness the toll COVID-19 is taking on families and businesses and most importantly the loss of life. Public health officials around the world are raising concerns about recommended vaccines that are being skipped due to COVID-19 for both humans and animals. All veterinary hospitals in Washington have operated at limited capacity...

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07 August

Antimicrobial Resistance and Stewardship Initiative looking for participants

wsvma   |   Animal Health, One Health

The University of Minnesota is recruiting U.S. small animal veterinary teaching hospitals to participate in a 2020 national point-prevalence survey (PPS) to gather data on antibiotic use in dogs and cats. Data from a single day of clinical practice will be collected from all participating hospitals for national-level aggregation and analysis. This approach is modeled after CDC’s methodology to estimate national antibiotic use and healthcare-associated infections in hospitals and nursing homes (e.g., PMID 32519751, 30380384). Time commitment is estimated to be...

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19 June

July webinar series – Partnering for Dairy Antimicrobial Stewardship: A Conference for Farmers and Veterinarians in the West

wsvma   |   Continuing Education, One Health

Newer and proposed guidance and regulations from the US Food and Drug Association (FDA) have focused attention on the role of the veterinarian to provide complete oversight of antimicrobial use in food animal production. The Veterinary Feed Directive addressed in-feed antimicrobials and severely restricted uses of these products. In September of 2019, the FDA announced proposed guidance on the use of over-the-counter drugs (OTC), eventually eliminating their use and requiring veterinary prescriptions for any antimicrobial. The state of California passed...

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08 November

Governor Inslee proclaims November 3, 2019 One Health Day

wsvma   |   One Health

Washington Governor Jay Inslee issued a proclamation for the State of Washington recognizing Nov. 3, 2019 as One Health Day. One Health Day provides an opportunity for experts and the community to join together in One Health education and awareness. The WSVMA has been collaborating for the past four years with the WA Dept. of Health, WA Dept. of Agriculture, Washington State University, University of Washington, human health professionals and environmental experts to address antimicrobial resistance in Washington State.   This year...

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31 October

Partnering for Dairy Antimicrobial Stewardship: A Conference for Farmers and Veterinarians in the West

wsvma   |   One Health

Newer and proposed guidance and regulations from the US Food and Drug Association (FDA) have focused attention on the role of the veterinarian to provide complete oversight of antimicrobial use in food animal production. The Veterinary Feed Directive addressed in-feed antimicrobials and severely restricted uses of these products. In September of 2019, the FDA announced proposed guidance on the use of over-the-counter drugs (OTC), eventually eliminating their use and requiring veterinary prescriptions for any antimicrobial. The state of California passed...

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16 August

Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria as Reportable Diseases: An Update

wsvma   |   One Health

Recently the University of Pennsylvania, Ryan Veterinary Teaching Hospital experienced an outbreak of an NDM-5 carbapenemase producing E. coli infections originating in the ICU.  One of the most significant types of gram negative resistance, it eliminates use of the carbapenem class, including imipenem and meropenem, a last line therapy in human medicine. In addition, this type of carbapenemase enzyme had not been reported in the USA in either human or veterinary medicine, which made it novel in this country.  Not...

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12 July

Pièce de Résistance – Infection Control

wsvma   |   One Health

Within the veterinary hospital environment, regular cleaning and disinfection of equipment and surfaces is critical for environmental control of pathogens. Implementation of an effective Hospital Infection Control Plan can significantly reduce peri-surgical and procedural antimicrobial use. For more information, consult the Compendium of Veterinary Standard Precautions for Zoonotic Disease Prevention in Veterinary Personnel published by the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians, Veterinary Infection Control Committee Pièce de Résistance is a monthly message on antimicrobial stewardship brought to you by WSVMA’s...

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14 June

Pièce de Résistance – The real sCOOP on antibiotic use in poultry …why less is not always better

wsvma   |   One Health

Since the implementation of the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) in January 2017, medical health professionals, veterinarians, producers, pharmaceutical companies, regulatory agencies, and other stakeholders have been working together to promote judicious antibiotic use in food animals to prevent resistance. The poultry industry has been very proactive in this regard, and had already eliminated some medically important human antibiotics from their arsenal. However, “no antibiotics ever” or similar label claims can sometimes be misleading and detrimental to animal health and welfare. So what...

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12 April

Pièce de Résistance

wsvma   |   One Health

Multiple Drug Resistant Bacterial contamination or colonization of clinic personnel and or equipment, as well as cross-infection of patients within a veterinary hospital setting have been demonstrated. This underscores the importance of possible healthcare-associated infections in dogs and the need for diligent application of infection prevention strategies in veterinary care settings. Pièce de Résistance is a monthly message on antimicrobial stewardship brought to you by WSVMA’s One Health Workgroup.   Posted April 19, 2019...

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08 March

Pièce de Résistance

wsvma   |   One Health

Concerns about antimicrobial resistance most often focus on how we use antibiotics, but this is only one part of the challenge. Transmission factors can be even more important depending on the circumstances. For example, work in east Africa shows that antibiotic use, per se, provides no predictive value for having antimicrobial-resistant gut bacteria in people or animals. Instead, variables related to transmission of bacteria (e.g., consuming raw milk, sharing drinking water sources, bringing outside animals to the farm, etc.) are...

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