Human Clostridium difficile-associated disease (CDAD) is of unquestioned importance in humans, and has been a not-uncommon cause of enteric disease in horses, dogs, and ratites. Over the past 5 years, C. difficile has emerged as a major cause of neonatal enteritis in pigs. Piglets 1-7 days of age are affected, with gross lesions frequently including mesocolonic edema. Colonic contents may be pa...

Antimicrobial resistance is a major health problem. After decades of research, numerous difficulties in tackling resistance have emerged, from the paucity of new antimicrobials to the inefficient contingency plans to reduce the use of antimicrobials; consequently, resistance to these drugs is out of control. Today we know that bacteria from the environment are often at the very origin of the ac...

A successful surveillance program for antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli in Australia should account for the heterogenous nature of the food-animal population. Studies that rely on measurements made on several hundred isolates can only satisfy limited objectives because they risk imprecise and biased estimation of the presence and distribution of resistance traits. Observations on a larger n...

As man-made chemicals (anthropogenic) are increasing in number and amount of use, it is not uncommon for farmers, ranchers, consultants, or veterinarians to suspect a xenobiotic (strange or foreign substance) as the cause of reproductive failures. In this article, the authors discuss toxicants that have been shown to affect reproduction, with emphasis on food-producing animals and fowl. The dis...

Numerous environmental reservoirs contribute to the widespread antibiotic resistance problem in human pathogens. One environmental reservoir of particular importance is the intestinal bacteria of food-producing animals. In this review I examine recent discoveries of antibiotic resistance genes in agricultural animals. Two types of antibiotic resistance gene discoveries will be discussed: the us...

It has long been known that severe food deprivation disrupts the estrous cycle. One of the main problems with behavioral tasks that use food for reinforcement is the requirement that the animal be food deprived. This manipulation could be problematic in studies using female animals, since it may interfere with the estrous cycle of the animals. The purpose of the present study was to investigate...

Session Information for Program Number 450C Print Close window Abstract Content Program Nr: Mutations that Cause Food-Deprived Behavior in Well-Fed Animals. , Bob Horvitz. HHMI, Dept. Biology, MIT, Cambridge, MA. Acute food deprivation causes N2 animals to modulate their locomotion differently than well-fed animals upon entering a bacterial lawn . Acutely food-deprived animals exhibit a seroton...

Previous studies in humans and animals have reported that nicotine administration decreases body weightand caloric intake. Opiate and cigarette have been used concomitantly as drug abuse. The aim of the present study was, therefore, to analyze the effect of chronic co-administration of nicotine and morphine on food intake, body weight and on some feeding-associated peptides. All experiments wer...

Clostridium difficile is a recognized pathogen in neonatal pigs and may contribute to enteritis in calves. Toxinotype V strains have been rare causes of human C. difficile-associated disease (CDAD). We examined toxinotype V in human disease, the genetic relationship of animal and human toxinotype V strains, and in vitro toxin production of these strains. From 2001 through 2006, 8 (1.3%) of 620 ...