In livestock, the importance of hygiene management is gaining importance within the context of biosecurity. The aim of this study was to monitor the implementation of biosecurity and hygiene procedures in 20 swine herds over a 12-month period, as driven by tailor-made plans, including training on-farm. The measure of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) environmental contents was used as an output biomarker. The presence of livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) and extended-spectrum β-lactamase producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-E. coli) was also investigated as sentinels of antibiotic resistance. A significant biosecurity improvement (p = 0.006) and a reduction in the ATP content in the sanitised environment (p = 0.039) were observed. A cluster including 6/20 farms greatly improved both biosecurity and ATP contents, while the remaining 14/20 farms ameliorated them only slightly. Even if the ESBL-E. coli prevalence (30.0%) after the hygiene procedures significantly decreased, the prevalence of LA-MRSA (22.5%) was unaffected. Despite the promising results supporting the adoption of tailor-made biosecurity plans and the measure of environmental ATP as an output biomarker, the high LA-MRSA prevalence still detected at the end of the study underlines the importance of improving even more biosecurity and farm hygiene in a one-health approach aimed to preserve also the pig workers health.

In order to investigate the prevalence of some thermophilic Campylobacter (C. jejuni and C. coli) and enteric Helicobacter (H. pullorum and H. canadensis) in domestic and wild birds, a total of 278 bird caecal samples were analyzed over a 2 year period in North-Western Italy. Samples were collected from poultry raised in intensive farming at the slaughterhouse (n=102, group A) and in small scale rural farms (n=60, group B) as well as from wild birds (n=116, group C). PCR amplifications were carried out on DNA extracted from caecal samples. Molecular assays targeted the hipO gene for C. jejuni, the asp gene for C. coli and the 16S rRNA gene of H. pullorum/H. canadensis. To differentiate H. pullorum from H. canadensis, PCR products were subjected to an ApaLI digestion assay. Prevalence of thermophilic Campylobacter and enteric Helicobacter was significantly different among groups (p<0.0001). Campylobacter infections were detected in all three bird groups (78.4% group A, 18.3% group B and 38.8% group C, respectively), Helicobacter infections were only detected in poultry, with H. pullorum infecting 68.6% of group A and 21.7% of group B birds. H. canadensis was detected in Guinea fowls (group A) and for the first time in pheasants (group B). Mixed infections by enteric Campylobacter and Helicobacter were shown in 53.9% of group A and in 5.0 % of group B. Our results show that both microorganisms commonly infect poultry, especially intensive farming animals. Only hooded crows among the wild bird group (group C), proved to be highly sensitive to Campylobacter infection.

Tramuta C, et al. J Vet Sci. 2011 Mar;12(1):49-55. http://dx.doi.org/10.4142/jvs.2011.12.1.49

Fluoroquinolones were originally developed for the Gram-negative aerobic spectrum, but the newer generation agents are also highly effective against some Gram-positive pathogens and cause few adverse effects. Owing to these characteristics, fluoroquinolones are often used in first line therapy in small animal practice. However, their widespread use has raised concern over emerging bacterial resistance. In this study we evaluated the in vitro efficacy of two fluoroquinolones, marbofloxacin and enrofloxacin, on field strains isolated from clinical infections between 2002 and 2005. Our data show that most of the isolates are still sensitive to both antimicrobials and marbofloxacin was more effective than enrofloxacin, especially against P. aeruginosa and beta-Streptococci (P < 0.01). beta-Streptococci demonstrated the greatest resistance to the two study drugs.