RESUMO
Antibiotics are widely used in pig farming across the world which has led to concerns about the potential impact on human health through the selection of antibiotic resistant pathogenic bacteria. This worry has resulted in the development of a production scheme known as pigs Raised Without Antibiotics (RWA), in which pigs are produced in commercial farms, but are ear-tagged as RWA until slaughter unless they receive treatment, thus allowing the farmer to sell the pigs either as premium priced RWA or as conventional meat. Development of antibiotic resistance in pig farming has been studied in national surveys of antibiotic usage and resistance, as well as in experimental studies of groups of pigs, but not in individual pigs followed longitudinally in a commercial pig farm. In this study, a cohort of RWA designated pigs were sampled at 10 time points from birth until slaughter along with pen-mates treated with antibiotics at the same farm. From these samples, the microbiome, determined using 16S sequencing, and the resistome, as determined using qPCR for 82 resistance genes, was investigated, allowing us to examine the difference between RWA pigs and antibiotic treated pigs. We furthermore included 176 additional pigs from six different RWA farms which were sampled at the slaughterhouse as an endpoint to substantiate the cohort as well as for evaluation of intra-farm variability. The results showed a clear effect of age in both the microbiome and resistome composition from early life up until slaughter. As a function of antibiotic treatment, however, we observed a small but significant divergence between treated and untreated animals in their microbiome composition immediately following treatment, which disappeared before 8 weeks of age. The effect on the resistome was evident and an effect of treatment could still be detected at week 8. In animals sampled at the slaughterhouse, we observed no difference in the microbiome or the resistome as a result of treatment status but did see a strong effect of farm origin. Network analysis of co-occurrence of microbiome and resistome data suggested that some resistance genes may be transferred through mobile genetic elements, so we used Hi-C metagenomics on a subset of samples to investigate this. We conclude that antibiotic treatment has a differential effect on the microbiome vs. the resistome and that although resistance gene load is increased by antibiotic treatment load, this effect disappears before slaughter. More studies are needed to elucidate the optimal way to rear pigs without antibiotics.
RESUMO
PURPOSE: To update a previous review of psychometric properties of performance-based outcome measurement instruments (PerFOMs) for task performance in the context of meal activity of older adults (≥65 years) with suspected oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Systematic searches were conducted in PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, SCOPUS, and Web of Science. Studies on PerFOMs that covers items reflecting skills in the pre-oral, oral, and pharyngeal stages of ingestion during meals were included. Two review authors independently screened, extracted, and evaluated the methodological rigour and quality of the reported psychometric properties in the included studies using the guidelines of the COnsensus-based Standards for the Selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN). RESULTS: Twenty-three articles featuring nine original PerFOMs and five translated versions were included. PerFOM development and content validity were rated with inadequate or doubtful methodological quality across all studies. The quality of the evidence across the additional psychometric properties of the PerFOMs was very low for two, ranged from very low to moderate for six, and from very low to high for five. CONCLUSIONS: There is limited evidence of the psychometric properties of available PerFOMs for measuring task performance during meals in older adults with OD, and further validation is warranted.Implication for rehabilitationAssessing the mealtime performance of older adults with oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) provides important information.Performance-based outcome measurement instruments (PerFOMs) need to be valid and reliable.Clinicians need to be careful when choosing PerFOMs to assess the mealtime performance of older adults with OD as there is insufficient evidence on the quality of available instruments.Established guidelines and standards should be used when developing and investigating psychometric properties of PerFOMs assessing mealtime performance of older adults with OD.
RESUMO
MRSA is an increasing problem in humans as well as livestock. The bacterial co-colonization of the skin in MRSA carriers has been poorly investigated and moreover, there have been no methods for high resolution investigations of the Staphylococcus genus apart from tediously culturing or doing multiple PCRs. On 120 samples from pig ear, skin and nose, we generated amplicons from the V1-V2 region of the 16S rRNA gene to gather an overview of the genus-level microbiome, along with using MRSA specific plates to count MRSA. In parallel with this, amplicons of the tuf gene were generated, targeting only a region of the tuf gene found only in the Staphylococcus genus. Using these methods, we determined a core microbiota across the healthy pig and determined the Staphylococcus genus to be dominated by S. equorum. Moreover, we found Streptococcus to be inversely associated with Staphylococcus and MRSA, suggesting a role for this genus in combating MRSA. In this work, we have thoroughly investigated the skin and nose microbiome of the pig and developed a high throughput method for profiling the Staphylococcus genus which we believe will be useful for further investigations.