Enhancing veterinary diagnostic capabilities for antimicrobial susceptibility testing

When faced with a patient needing treatment for a bacterial infection, both human physicians and veterinarians rely on laboratory testing for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to help direct selection of antibiotic therapy. The ability for laboratories to rapidly respond in the face of emerging antimicrobial resistance threats to both human and animal health is also critical to enable identification and containment of such threats. Within this Seed Grant project, we will repurpose existing technology – the Hewlett Packard D300e digitaldispensing system (D300e) – to develop a reproducible and cost-effective method for on-site generation within veterinary diagnostic laboratories of custom antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) supplies in the form of 96-well broth microdilution plates to allow for rapid response to changing needs for veterinary AST. Following initial on-site validation, we aim tosuccessfully freeze andshipfrozen custom platesto outside labs tovalidatefor use following overnight shipment. As a proof-of-concept, we will then use these custom plates to generate critical data necessary for improving antimicrobial stewardship in poultry production.Validation of the D300e to rapidly generate custom AST plates will allow veterinary diagnostic laboratories to incorporate this technology in their workflows to rapidly address emerging AMR threats to animal production systems in the future, thereby improving antimicrobial stewardship.