Antimicrobial use perceptions and practices in dairy production in Front Range Colorado
College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Clinical Sciences
Larimer
County
(Boulder, Broomfield, Jackson, Morgan, Weld)
- Agriculture
- Equal time spent on-campus and in the field
Primary Topic:
Agriculture
Other Topics:
Food Systems
Internship Overview:
Dairy farm animal and dairy worker health and productivity are crucial to national and global food security. Food security and supplies have been threatened by recent disruption among worker availability in the U.S. There is a strong link between food security and overall health security, as the former is essential to human health, animal health and economic growth and overall food availability. Antimicrobial use in animal production systems has long been suspected to be a cause of the emergence and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance of pathogens. The need to use antimicrobials either in-feed or as treatment is an effective and practical measure. The choice of antimicrobials among veterinarians, however, may vary depending on their experience and availability for different indications. However, there’s little understanding that exists regarding the important role farmers play in efforts to reduce antibiotic use in animal agriculture, particularly dairy farmers’ perceptions and practices.
Goals, Scope and Objectives:
The goal of our project is to utilize a questionnaire survey to capture data on perceptions and practices of dairy farm (including cow-calf operations) owners, managers and workers on antimicrobial use in livestock (AMU). Efficient and practical means to capture these perceptions and practices information among handlers and owners of livestock will be important to reveal gaps and understanding of antimicrobial stewardship, to prevent and control AMR pathogens entering food processing systems through livestock populations. This will confer researchers the ability to construct and provide evidence-based recommendations to improve overall understanding of judicious use of antimicrobials on dairy operations. The scope of the project is to apply the findings to future work aimed at designing training and education programs on antimicrobial stewardship practices in livestock. The objective of the internship is to:
1) Assess and compare perceptions of dairy owners, managers and workers on AMU with special emphasis on the VFD rule by utilizing data captured by the digital survey tool.
2) Share the findings through a set of recommendations to farm management on relevant training and awareness programs specifically for dairy farm personnel.
1) Assess and compare perceptions of dairy owners, managers and workers on AMU with special emphasis on the VFD rule by utilizing data captured by the digital survey tool.
2) Share the findings through a set of recommendations to farm management on relevant training and awareness programs specifically for dairy farm personnel.
With which stakeholder group(s) will the intern work?
The stakeholders will be dairy farmers, managers and workers. Farms will be enrolled on a voluntary basis and owners and/or managers will be presented with a consent letter. Researchers and extension personnel will strictly adhere to biosecurity protocols.
One consent is attained, each participant will be asked the questions independently from the AMU perception survey by the intern. On each farm, one owner, one manager and two workers will be selected. The Spanish translated version will be offered to those personnel with Spanish as preferred language. The survey will be administered to the personnel after the participant’s work-shift, with each questionnaire taking approximately 30-40 minutes to complete. We anticipate collecting data with a total of 32 questionnaires from 8 farms.
One consent is attained, each participant will be asked the questions independently from the AMU perception survey by the intern. On each farm, one owner, one manager and two workers will be selected. The Spanish translated version will be offered to those personnel with Spanish as preferred language. The survey will be administered to the personnel after the participant’s work-shift, with each questionnaire taking approximately 30-40 minutes to complete. We anticipate collecting data with a total of 32 questionnaires from 8 farms.
What student learning outcomes do you anticipate and what are the opportunities for professional development?
The project will provide a very good platform for the intern to gain experience in questionnaire construction, validation and data collection from dairy producers/managers and workers from Front Range Colorado. The intern will be preferred to be proficient in Spanish language for communicating with the workers and interviewing them. The intern will also assist with any data entry and validation processes involved. They will be selected with a background and interest in epidemiology/population health, either from DVM or MPH or MS/PhD program.
