10:00-10:30: Alexander E. Primus: Fish health and environmental contaminants: A case study from Minnesota lakes
10:30-11:00: Noelle Noyes: The complexity of researching antimicrobial use and resistance in North American beef production
11:00-11:30: Elizabeth A. Miller: Identifying AMR determinants of public health concern in Canada geese from Minnesota beaches
Cake will be served!
Hope to see you there!
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Alexander E. Primus, DVM, PhD
Assistant professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota
His research interests are related to fish health management, infectious diseases of fish, and the development of sustainable aquaculture practices. He was originally trained as a comparative zoologist, and has since then worked in comparative genomics, disease surveillance, and diagnostic development. After receiving his veterinary degree focused on fish health, he worked in industry for two and a half years conducting fish vaccine and pharmaceutical research and development. Currently, he is working on several projects related to the effects of environmental contaminants on fish health, microbiomes in aquatic systems, SRS disease management, and diagnostic development. He is also working with fish diagnostics and extension.
10:00 – 10:30: Fish health and environmental contaminants: A case study from Minnesota lakes
Water quality is a critical concern globally and anthropogenic water pollution can have highly detrimental effects on public health, animals, and the environment. Methodologies enabling accurate evaluation and management of aquatic environments is central to ensuring continued resilience of these systems. We have begun to develop a study site and refine methodologies to evaluate the health of freshwater aquatic systems from an ecosystem health perspective. Our current study uses contaminant data and indicators of fish health to evaluate ecosystem health in a group of freshwater lakes in northeastern Minnesota. In our first field season, we gathered data from 18 lakes in the region which we classified as either undeveloped, developed, or discharge-related depending on the relative amount of anthropogenic influence.
Water, sediment, and fish tissue from each lake was tested for over 150 contaminants that include heavy metals, endocrine disrupting compounds, industrial and agricultural by-products, and pharmaceuticals. The number of contaminants detected in any one sample range from 1 to 84. We also collected data from each site that may be used as an indicator of fish health. Specifically, we performed a quantitative analysis of several ectoparasites, and conducted a fish health index based on the appearance of gross abnormalities of several organ systems. Up to 20 fish of each of two species – either walleye and yellow perch or lake trout and cisco – were evaluated at each site. This work will shed light on the complex dynamics of this system and serve as a baseline for future studies focused on refining tools and approaches used to evaluate aquatic ecosystems health.
Noelle Noyes, PhD
Assistant professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota
Is a veterinary epidemiologist specializing in the microbial ecology of livestock production systems; she is currently Assistant Professor in the Veterinary Population Medicine Department at University of Minnesota. Her lab combines molecular epidemiology with advanced bioinformatic and statistical approaches to understand how livestock production practices impact microbial ecological dynamics, including antimicrobial resistance.
For more information, visit www.thenoyeslab.org
For a list of publications, visit https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Noelle_Noyes
10:30 – 11:00: The complexity of researching antimicrobial use and resistance in North American beef production.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a public health priority, nationally and internationally. Currently, many efforts are underway to mitigate AMR. Some of these efforts are targeted at livestock production, particularly practices involving antimicrobial use in food-producing animals. However, there is relatively little scientific information regarding how antimicrobial use in livestock production impacts AMR in animals and humans; indeed, this area of the scientific literature has been identified as a key data gap preventing evidence-based solutions to AMR. There are many reasons for this knowledge gap, including challenges in tracking AMR within livestock systems and evolution in our way of thinking about AMR in the context of microbial ecology.
At University of Minnesota, we are attempting to fill some of this gap by using an integrated metagenomic and systems-level approach to understanding how specific livestock production practices influence AMR dynamics. By working directly with livestock producers, and by collaborating across scientific disciplines, we are able to investigate AMR within commercial production systems (such as feedlots and slaughterhouses), and then contextualize our scientific findings within a comprehensive framework that views livestock production as a complex system.
By taking this approach, we are beginning to understand how various livestock production practices modify the resistome (i.e., the collection of resistance genes within an environment), and the role of antimicrobial use within this larger context. In this talk, I will highlight some of the unique insights that we have garnered using metagenomics, and detail the methods and projects currently underway to advance resistome research.
Elizabeth A. Miller, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, Department of Veterinary & Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota
Her background is primarily in microbial ecology, with a focus on understanding how host social behavior influences the structure and function of host microbial communities. As a research scientist at the University of Minnesota, her broad research interest is the epidemiology of bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at the wildlife-livestock-human interface. More specifically, She is interested in two main questions: 1) What forces shape observed patterns of AMR in wild animal populations? and 2) What are the implications of wildlife AMR for human and domestic animal health? To address these questions, She use both standard microbiology laboratory methods and next generation sequencing in combination with network and spatial analysis tools.
11:00-11:30: Identifying AMR determinants of public health concern in Canada geese from Minnesota beaches.
The significance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in natural ecosystems for human and domestic animal health remains largely unknown. For example, wild animals could act as amplifying “reservoirs” and disseminators of pathogenic and antimicrobial resistant bacteria. Canada geese (Branta canadensis) may represent a particular public health AMR threat given the large quantity of feces they produce daily and their overabundance at swimming beaches and public parks. I will discuss preliminary results and next steps from a study investigating AMR in fecal coliforms collected from geese at Minnesota public beaches.