An official website of the United States government.

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

High throughput sequencing technology in veterinary diagnostic laboratories to combat antimicrobial resistance

Objective

Project summaryThe economic cost of drug resistant infections has been calculated to reach up to reach$10 trillion with a deaths reaching up to 10 million deaths. The brunt of these economicand humanitarian devastation will be disproportionally felt by developing countries(O?Neil, 20114. In the USA close to 23, 000 people die annually as direct consequenceof infection with antimicrobial resistant organism. The cost of this calamity is stated to beupwards of $35 billion per year (CDC, 2013). We do not know or truly understand theepidemiology of AMR or its geographic distribution in the U.S. Part of the answer lies inidentifying the role of potential reservoirs such as companion and production animals. Abetter understanding of the transmission dynamics of AMR will help us understand therole of these unique animal sources in the distribution dynamics of drug resistance.The University of Georgia, through its ?One Health? initiative, is committed to promoting,training, and conducting research in all areas of animal, human and environmental health.The College of Veterinary Medicine and the State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory havea duty to the state and to its constituents to not only perform diagnosis but also to monitortrends and report unusual disease presentations or patterns of AMR. Our laboratory takesthis responsibility very seriously, and over the years our faculty members have publishedarticles with such findings. Moreover, the PI has worked extensively in the study of thechicken gut micro-biome, including the distribution of antimicrobial resistance, and theepidemiology of Salmonella in wildlife and the environment.The objective of this grant application is to enhance the capacity of our laboratory andother to assist with the FDA?s ability to monitor disease and AMR in animals and foodproducts designated for pet consumption. We specifically propose to purchase an IlluinaMiSeq instrument to piggyback on the current VET-LIRN Antimicrobial ResistanceSurveillance project for which we are a source laboratory, and for the past year we haveassisting to validate sequencing capabilities of small laboratories through a methodscomparison project. Our laboratory is proficient in library preparation/sequencing andready to move to a high-throughput system to assist the sequencing laboratories in theVET-LIRNN Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance project.

Investigators
Sanchez, Susan
Institution
University of Georgia
Start date
2019
End date
2020
Project number
1U18FD006861-01