Building a Common Language for Antimicrobial Resistance Between Human & Animal Health

Broth microdilution testing, a common form of AST, is routinely performed in diagnostic labs and can be used to both calculate ECVs and apply clinical breakpoints. Thus, to improve antimicrobial stewardship in veterinary medicine and create a level playing field between human and animal health, there is a critical need to generate data for ECV development for many bacterial pathogens and antimicrobial combinations which are currently lacking. To achieve this goal, the resources and membership of the National Institute of Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Education are being leveraged to complete the following:

1. Provide veterinary diagnostic laboratories custom dilution plates to generate the extended dilution data needed to calculate ECVs for veterinary antimicrobials and pathogens.
2. Create a data repository and dashboard to share the generated ECV data with the human and animal health communities.
3. Develop an educational outreach program to inform human and animal health on the One Health advantages of utilizing ECVs to create a common language for combating AMR

When completed, this project will create a true One Health approach to evaluating antimicrobial resistance from human, animal and environmental sources that can be readily applied on a global scale. The results will also be used to promote responsible antimicrobial use in veterinary medicine with a focus on production animals through generating data necessary to establish new clinical breakpoints as well as providing an alternative to extrapolations of breakpoints from other species for clinical decision-making when true clinical breakpoints are lacking.

FFAR’s Seeding Solutions Grant program is an open call for bold ideas that address pressing food and agriculture issues in one of the Foundation’s Research Priorities. Kreuder’s research furthers FFAR’s Production Systems Research Priority by helping producers reduce reliance on antibiotics, minimize environmental impacts, maintain productivity and improve animal welfare.

This FFAR $216,724 Seeding Solutions grant to Iowa State University of Science and Technology is matched by Merck MSD, for a total $433,449 investment.