Progress 07/18/19 to 06/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:One of the important aims of this project is to develop CE that not only promotes veterinary commitment to calf care and AMS, but also enables veterinarians to promote commitment to AMS to their clients. This is a critical and important public health role for all veterinarians working with food animals. As planned, the participating calf ranch served as a demonstration farm for creating awareness of challenges to calf health, allowing us to refine research methods and protocols, and develop and model the extension program at large. We integrated a needs assessments of the participating ranch veterinarians to establish key components of interest within the research project's methods and outcomes. Leveraging the on-farm insight into real time educational opportunities, practical applications, and assessments of behavior changes has informed the development of CE. Through our interactions with the participating ranch owner, veterinarians and employees we established areas of particular focus including: 1) protocol development and oversight, 2) practical calf health assessments, 3) on-farm calf postmortem evaluations including categorizing and recording causes of death, 4) GI disease diagnostics and prevention, 5) standard of care relative to therapeutic options and prudent use of antibiotics to treat calf GI disease, 6) monitoring treatment failure and success, and 7) farm personnel communication strategies. The broader stakeholder audience primarily consists of dairy veterinarians associated with the Academy of Dairy Veterinary Consultants (ADVC) and regional livestock veterinarians who have a proven track record of interest in continued education related to calf GI disease and antimicrobial stewardship. To date, we have delivered in-person Extension programs and needs assessments based on the above focal points at 3 veterinarian-targeted meetings within the state of Washington (17 attendees), and 1 meeting each within California (20 attendees) and Arizona (15 attendees). Meetings within Idaho are being rescheduled following COVID-based delays and will include an online CE summary. In addition, we have had the opportunity to present posters summarizing initial findings from this research at the 2020 American Dairy Science Association's Annual Meeting. Participants attending this meeting included veterinary practitioners, industry representatives, institutional and private research scientists, biomedical investors, and graduate students across a spectrum of research interests. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided several layers of training and professional development activities. During the research trial there were 3 graduate students (DVM candidate, DVM/PhD candidate, and PhD candidate) and one postdoctoral fellow involved at different stages alongside the PIs. Specific training related to laboratory techniques, calf management, clinical assessments and necropsies were integral to the project. Additional professional development has extended into histopathological and microbiological assessments, microbiome bioinformatics, on-farm and institutional communication, scholarly output and conference participation. Similarly, farm personnel including on-site veterinarians were provided with opportunities to expand their technical skills related to clinical oversight and postmortems. One of the highlights of this project has been the opportunity for all participants to witness the power of improved interpersonal communication affecting both the conduct of the study and the on-farm operations.. Overall, the various activities aligned with those objectives outlined above relating to improving classifications for neonatal dairy calf GI disease phenotypes, and enhancing neonatal calf management, including diagnostic oversight, therapeutic alternatives to antibiotic use, and impacts of disease. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The broad stakeholder audience primarily consists of dairy veterinarians associated with the Academy of Dairy Veterinary Consultants (ADVC) and regional livestock veterinarians who have a proven track record of interest in continued education related to calf GI disease and antimicrobial stewardship. To date, we have delivered in-person Extension programs and needs assessments based on the above focal points at 3 veterinarian-targeted meetings within the state of Washington (17 attendees), and 1 meeting each within California (20 attendees) and Arizona (15 attendees). Meetings within Idaho are being rescheduled following COVID-based delays and will include an online CE summary. In addition, we have had the opportunity to present posters summarizing initial findings from this research at the 2020 American Dairy Science Association's Annual Meeting. Participants attending this meeting included veterinary practitioners, industry representatives, institutional and private research scientists, biomedical investors, and graduate students across a spectrum of research interests. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Diarrhea-associated neonatal calf gastrointestinal (GI) disease remains one of the most important diseases in dairy calves. Severe diarrhea impacts animal welfare and results in significant economic losses due to high mortality rates, high medical costs, and low weight gain. However, our ability to distinguish between the different pathologies associated with GI disease, i.e. our analytic accuracy of identifying different GI disease phenotypes, is hindered by limited availability and use of on-farm diagnostics and particularly the limited implementation of postmortem evaluations. Given the high proportion of affected calves treated with antimicrobials, improving on-farm diagnostic skills and therapeutic options are key for improving agriculture's stewardship of antimicrobial use. Objectives. 1) Develop Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) inoculum as an alternative treatment option for calves manifesting variable GI disease. 2) Administer and evaluate FMT therapy. 3) Improve classifications for neonatal dairy calf GI disease phenotypes through enhanced diagnostics, including epigenetic and microbial community evaluations. 4) Engage progressive dairy practitioners in a continuing education program focused on neonatal calf management, including diagnostic oversight, therapeutic alternatives to antibiotic use, and impacts of disease. To date, we have developed FMT inoculum and administered it to preweaned dairy calves to evaluate FMT product as a therapy for neonatal GI disease. The first phase of this two phase project focused on describing the impact of calf GI disease on the fecal microbiome and clinical health of calves. The second phase of this project incorporated FMT therapy into a clinical trial assessing calf GI disease outcomes alongside various antimicrobial and supportive therapies. Across both phases we were able to assess postmortem outcomes related to GI disease, establish field-based postmortem protocols, and determine breed-level differences in GI disease pathology and therapeutic response. Ultimately a modified necropsy protocol was developed focusing on GI disease by reducing overall samples taken for histologic analysis and expanding samples of fresh tissues for bacteriology. To develop the corresponding CE, detailed photographs of any unique lesion, necropsy practice, and set-up were recorded alongside basic necropsy video guidance that is currently under development (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC1YiSvPsSpwE79ikhWamhuz7shMPBBo4). Importantly, our necropsy protocols have been used to efficiently and effectively describe a specific pathology commonly seen in the calves on the participating farm: necrotizing, ulcerative enterocolitis and typhlitis. This demonstrates that such a protocol can serve to expand our knowledge of neonatal calf pathologies and guide farm management. To develop the fecal transplant inoculum from dairy calf feces, consistently healthy calves of different breeds 5-24 d of age with fecal scores ≤2 out of 4 were used as fecal donors to create the FMT inoculum. A total of 358 frozen fecal samples from 73 calves were combined to prepare a single FMT slurry. All fecal samples tested negative for Salmonella and were processed under aerobic conditions. The FMT product had an average of 200 observed species with an abundance of microorganisms associated with gut health (Bifidobacterium, Faecalibacterium). The predominant species were Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium pseudolongum, Collinsella aerofaciens and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii. To associate symptoms of GI disease and breed differences with the fecal microbiome, fecal samples were collected from 282 calves: 194 Holstein (H) and 88 Jersey (J). Health status was evaluated daily. Calves with a fecal score ≤2 and no clinical illness were classified as healthy. Calves with a fecal score ≥3 were diagnosed with GI disease and classified as bright-sick (BS) or depressed-sick (DS) according to their behavior. Firmicutes was identified as the most dominant phylum in calves with GI disease, and Actinobacteria in healthy calves. Healthy calves showed abundant Bifidobacteriaceae, Bacteroidaceae and Eubacteriaceae. BS calves showed abundant Listeriaceae, Clostridiaceae and Lachnospiraceae. DS calves showed abundant Lactobacillaceae, Streptococcaceae and Enterobacteriaceae. A randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of FMT on the fecal microbiome in pre-weaned dairy calves. FMT product was made as described above. Calves (n=151) were randomly assigned to FMT treatment groups, clinically assessed twice daily from 1 to 21 d of age, and enrolled in the trial from 4 to 12 d of age. Fecal samples were collected 10 days after enrollment (13 to 21 d of age) from calves that did (n=82) or did not (n=69) receive FMT (35g PO SID for 3 d). Preliminary results suggest that the genus Lactobacillus was abundant in healthy calves that remained healthy post-FMT. Healthy calves that remained healthy without FMT had an abundance of the family Actinomycetaceae. Healthy calves that progressed to BS without FMT had an abundance of the family Lachnospiraceae. Healthy calves that progressed to BS post-FMT had an abundance of the family Lactobacillaceae. The proportion of initially healthy calves that progressed to BS, DS or died did not differ by FMT administration (p=0.14). However, BS and DS calves without FMT treatment were more likely to recover to a healthy state (p-value = 0.02), necessitating a reconsideration of the characteristics and utility of FMT in dairy calves.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
G.S. Slanzon, L.M. Parrish, S.C. Trombetta, W.M. Sischo, C.S. McConnel. The effect of fecal microbiota transplants in pre-weaned dairy calves. Oral presentation at the 2020 American Dairy Science Association, Annual Meeting. West Palm Beach, FL. June, 2020.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
G.S. Slanzon, L.M. Parrish, S.C. Trombetta, W.M. Sischo, C.S. McConnel. Microbial composition of fecal transplant inoculum from dairy calf feces. Poster presentation at the 2020 American Dairy Science Association, Annual Meeting. West Palm Beach, FL. June, 2020.
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