Reference | Boulianne_2016_CaJoofVeRe (10253)

An observational study was conducted in chicken and turkey flocks slaughtered at federal processing plants in the province of Quebec, Canada from April 2003 to February 2004. A flock was defined as a group of birds from the same hatchery raised in a single poultry house during the same period of time. Only 1 flock per production site was selected over the study period. A systematic sampling method with a target sample size of 30 birds per flock was used for selection. The detailed method for flock and bird sampling is described in a previous study (8). A questionnaire about husbandry practices was sent to the flock manager within 2 d after slaughter (available in French on request). Producers were asked to provide the commercial names of antimicrobials administered at hatchery, the commercial names and doses (mg/kg) of anticoccidials and antimicrobials used as feed additives during each growth period, and information pertaining to the use of curative drugs. Written consent was also obtained from producers on a voluntary basis to contact hatchery and feed mill representatives in order to get and/or validate information about antimicrobial use.

Bacteria were isolated on a subsample of 51 chicken and 39 turkey flocks randomly selected for AMR testing, as described in a previous study (9). After evisceration, intestines from selected birds were placed in individual sterile plastic bags and put on ice for a maximum of 8 h. Two or 3 pools were then created for each flock, with each pool including cecal contents of approximately 10 birds. For each pool, feces were collected from 1 cecum for each bird using a sterile cotton swab, put in a sterile stomacher bag with 30 mL of nutritive broth, and homogenized with a stomacher (Lab-blender 400BA 6021; Seward Laboratory, London, England) for 30 s. All samples were subsequently frozen at 280°C for later analysis.

AST Method: Broth Microdilution

Reference explicitly reports AST breakpoints: True

Reference reports using a MIC table: False