Source: PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
MITIGATING ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE IN THE PUERTO RICO DAIRY CHAIN THROUGH RESEARCH, AND TRAINING OF FARMERS AND NEXT-GENERATION SCIENTISTS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1030570
Grant No.
2023-68015-39864
Cumulative Award Amt.
$1,000,000.00
Proposal No.
2022-08896
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Aug 1, 2023
Project End Date
Jul 31, 2027
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[A1366]- Mitigating Antimicrobial Resistance Across the Food Chain
Recipient Organization
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
408 Old Main
UNIVERSITY PARK,PA 16802-1505
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Dairy is one of the most significant economic drivers of Puerto Rico's (PR) agriculture. While dairy farms are documented to be reservoirs for antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) microorganisms in other global studies, there has been no systematic effort to analyze the issue on the island. Anecdotally, farmers in Puerto Rico commonly self-administer antibiotics to their animals to treat diseases such as mastitis and often are not receiving advice from veterinarians or county extension agents concerning best practices. In this proposal, we will quantify the prevalence of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria most commonly causing mastitis in dairy cows, on 20 farms across PR. We will also collect data that are markers of milk quality and hygiene. We will incorporate 16 undergraduates from the University of Puerto Rico Aricebo into this research, and deliver career seminars that we anticipate will lift up future leaders in the AMR field. Data collected will be used to develop extension seminars to communicate to PR dairy farmers the risk of AMR, and low cost, low barrier solutions they can implement that will additionally improve milk quality.
Animal Health Component
60%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
60%
Developmental
10%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
7234099110025%
9033499310020%
9034099110030%
7233499110025%
Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery; 723 - Hazards to Human Health and Safety;

Subject Of Investigation
3499 - Dairy cattle, general/other; 4099 - Microorganisms, general/other;

Field Of Science
1100 - Bacteriology; 3100 - Management;
Goals / Objectives
Specific Aim 1: To collect surveillance data on the prevalence of AMR E. coli and S. aureus on dairy farms in PR, identify genetic relatedness and modes of AMR gene acquisition, and correlate with milk quality,Specific Aim 2: To engage undergraduate students from the University of Puerto Rico-Arecibo in real-time AMR surveillance, genomic analysis of microorganisms, and career-enhancing seminars,Specific Aim 3: Develop cooperative extension education modules that provide knowledge, tools, and peer-training to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use by PR dairy producers
Project Methods
For Specific Aim 1, we will collect surveillance data on the prevalence of AMR E. coli and S. aureus on dairy farms in PR, identify genetic relatedness and modes of AMR gene acquisition, and correlate with milk quality. For this aim will use standard microbiological analyses to screen oxidative ponds located on farms for both species. These organisms will be whole genome sequenced, and bioinformatic analyses will be used to identify antibiotic resistance genes and relationship to world-wide isolates.For Specific Aim 2, we will incorporate undergraduate students from the University of Puerto Rico-Arecibo directly in the real-time AMR surveillance and genomic analysis of microorganisms. We will also deliver career-enhancing seminars to accelerate the development of leadership skills and careers in science, particularly around needs to address the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.For Specific Aim 3, we will develop cooperative extension modules to provide knowledge and tools that PR dairy producers can use to reduce the transmission of resistant organisms. The exact nature of these will be driven by the data that comes out of Specific Aim 1.

Progress 08/01/23 to 07/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The goal of this project is to provide information about antimicrobial resistance in the dairy chain of Puerto Rico to scientists across the island, which will in turn be used to train extension educators and farmers as to best practices for mitigation. Changes/Problems:The only minimal change, described earlier, is our deliberate decision to use existing island-wide monitoring of farms, to identify those with high somatic cell counts as determined by CMT. These will be the primary focus for sampling, rather than routine sampling of 20 farms as initially proposed, which we didn't feel after initial work would provide us with a necessary number of isolates from farms with known mastitis issues. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has engaged 4 graduate students with both research and extension aspects of this project. The graduate student from Penn State has taken an interest in helping lead Specific Aim 3. She wrote a USDA pre-doctoral fellowship for the October 2024 submission that expands this aim into the development of short videos to post on the University of Puerto Rico's extension site. The team has monthly meetings by Zoom, which all students involved have the opportunity to present their latest research data. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to identify farms with high CMT results for sampling, and include matched farms with low CMT for comparison. Isolates sent to Penn State will be sequenced to begin the process of identifying matches among world-wide circulating strains, and to develop methods for tracking the transmission of AMR containing plasmids. We will increasingly incorporate undergraduates into this work and develop training modules for them. Lastly, we will have a plan to develop the extension modules.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Specific aim 1: We are working with dairy farmers across Puerto Rico to collect E. coli and S. aureus from animals and the environment. The initial plan was to repeatedly visit 20 farms during the course of the rainy and dry seasons, however we learned early on that this strategy was not optimal if we wanted to characterize bacteria specifically from cows with mastitis (ie. rates of mastitis were too low to catch such isolates by random farm sampling). As such, we now rely on reports coming from the farms to identify those having issues with mastitis, to identify places we should be sampling from and collecting data about practices. We additionally identify farms for sampling concurrently, that do not report issues with mastitis and are similar by metrics such as number of animals and geographic location. As part of our first major collection, we visited 9 farms and isolated E. coli from bulk milk tanks. Slightly less than half of isolates were either carbapenem- or extended spectrum beta-lactam (ESBL) resistant. E. coli were isolated from 15-79% of animals that were positive for the California mastitis test (CMT), however only one was ESBL resistant. Similarly, we isolated S. aureus from CMT-positive animals, and 3 of 8 were identified as methicillin-resistant S. aureas (MRSA). On a second farm, 1 of 10 S. aureus isolates from CMT-positive animals were MRSA. All isolates were shipped to Penn State for whole genome sequencing. Specific aim 2: Training to date has primarily been for graduate students at Puerto Rico, who will take on the role as mentors of undergraduates as they establish their projects further. Specific Aim 3: This is a future aim for the grant.

Publications