Prevalence of antibiotic use for dogs and cats in United States veterinary teaching hospitals, August 2020.

BACKGROUND: Awareness of prescribing practices helps identify opportunities to improve antibiotic use (AU). OBJECTIVES: To estimate AU prevalence in dogs and cats in U.S. veterinary teaching hospitals (VTHs) and identify antibiotic drugs commonly prescribed, indications for use, and evidence of bacterial infection. ANIMALS: Medical record data were collected from dogs and cats examined at 14 VTHs. METHODS: Data were collected from VTH medical records of dogs and cats examined by primary care, urgent care, emergency and critical care, internal medicine, and surgery services on a single day during August 13-September 3, 2020. Data included signalment; clinical service; inpatient or outpatient status; clinical conditions; diagnostic tests; evidence of bacterial infection; intended reason for AU; name and route of antibiotics prescribed. RESULTS: Of 883 dogs and cats, 322 (36.5%) were prescribed at least 1 antibiotic. Among 285 antibiotics administered systemically intended for treatment of infection, 10.9% were prescribed without evidence of infection. The most common class of antibiotics presribed for systemic administration was potentiated penicillin for dogs (115/346, 33.3%) and cats (27/80, 33.8%). For dogs and cats, first-generation cephalosporins (93/346, 26.9% and 11/80, 13.8%, respectively) and fluoroquinolones (51/346, 14.7% and 19/80, 23.8%, respectively) was second or third most-prescribed. Common AU indications included skin, respiratory, and urinary conditions, and perioperative use. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Collaborative data collection provides a sustainable methodology to generate national AU prevalence estimates and bring attention to areas requiring additional research and detailed data collection. These efforts can also identify practice improvement opportunities in settings where future veterinarians are trained.

Comparison of a Chromogenic Urine Culture Plate System (UTid+) and Conventional Urine Culture for Canine and Feline Specimens.

In companion animal medicine, urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common indications for antimicrobial therapy. Definitive diagnosis of UTI requires isolation of bacteria with routine urine culture from an animal with concurrent clinical signs. Urine culture is typically performed at reference laboratories where paired susceptibility testing can be performed, but delays in shipment or processing can affect results. This study evaluated the use of a selective chromogenic, point-of-care culture system (UTid+) compared to conventional urine culture. A total of 119 (73 canine and 46 feline) cystocentesis urine samples were evaluated. Conventional urine culture was positive for 28 (23.5%) of the 119 cultures and UTid+ culture was positive for 26 (21.8%). The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy were 92.3%, 97.8%, 92.3%, 97.8 and 96.6% for UTid+ respectively. Overall, the UTid+ culture system showed an acceptable level of accuracy when compared to conventional urine culture. Agreement of identification results was high (κ = 0.90) with an important exception being Proteus spp. which was only identified in 1/3 positive cultures. UTid+ may be useful in scenarios where a common UTI pathogen is expected and identification within 24 h is ideal; however, conventional urine culture remains the gold standard.

Commensal Microbes Induce Serum IgA Responses that Protect against Polymicrobial Sepsis.

Serum immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies are readily detected in mice and people, but the mechanisms underlying the induction of serum IgA and its role in host protection remain uncertain. We report that select commensal bacteria induce several facets of systemic IgA-mediated immunity. Exposing conventional mice to a unique but natural microflora that included several members of the Proteobacteria phylum led to T cell-dependent increases in serum IgA levels and the induction of large numbers of IgA-secreting plasma cells in the bone marrow. The resulting serum IgA bound to a restricted collection of bacterial taxa, and antigen-specific serum IgA antibodies were readily induced after intestinal colonization with the commensal bacterium Helicobacter muridarum. Finally, movement to a Proteobacteria-rich microbiota led to serum IgA-mediated resistance to polymicrobial sepsis. We conclude that commensal microbes overtly influence the serum IgA repertoire, resulting in constitutive protection against bacterial sepsis.