Vermont Veterinary Tech Continuing Education

• Identify bacterial antimicrobial resistance mechanisms for resisting antimicrobial agents
• Discuss the molecular basis for bacterial antimicrobial resistance
• Explain laboratory methods for detecting and measuring antimicrobial resistance

• This contains all courses with the educational objectives listed from Antimicrobial Resistance in Veterinary Medicine 210 through Antimicrobial Resistance in Veterinary Medicine 213

Parts 1-3

• Demonstrate understanding of how preconditioning and other preventive management procedures can reduce the frequency of antibiotic treatments for Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD).
• Describe the components of a good preconditioning program and how BRD can be prevented in the feedlot.
• Describe how preventing BRD tends to cost less than clinical treatments with antibiotics.

• Describe medicated milk replacer and how it is regulated under the Veterinary Feed Directive.
• Identify antibiotics that historically were most commonly added to medicated milk replacer.
• List the disadvantages associated with using medicated milk replacer.
• Describe proper management and preventive medicine that are critical to long-term calf health.
• Describe a good colostrum management program for dairy calves.

• Describe the management practices that can prevent scours in calves, such as high quality colostrum management, sanitation and proper isolation procedures.
• Explain the proper role of antimicrobial agents in treating calves with scours.

• Discuss the general guidelines for the judicious use of antibiotics in the treatment of mastitis.
• Describe the factors to consider in the selection of an antimicrobial drug for mastitis treatment.
• Outline the preventive measures that may be taken on a dairy farm with regards to mastitis.
• Discuss proper indications for the use of antimicrobials for contagious mastitis in dairy cattle.
• Demonstrate understanding of the need to follow proper treatment protocols when using an antibiotic to treat individual cows for contagious udder pathogens.
• Explain how somatic cell counts and culture results are used to formulate a herd antibiotic treatment plan for contagious udder pathogens.
• Describe how antimicrobial treatment of contagious udder pathogens can be greatly reduced in herds by using effective mastitis prevention and control programs.
• Recognize the futility of using antibiotics to treat cases of contagious mastitis if the cow is to be returned to a herd where she will quickly become reinfected.

• Identify the frequency of antimicrobial use in small animal practice
• Summarize the classes and types of antimicrobials commonly used in small animal practice

• Describe the association between antimicrobial use and the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance
• Demonstrate understanding of the use of bacterial culture with antimicrobial susceptibility testing as an important diagnostic tool to support antimicrobial therapy

• Identify how antibiotics are frequently used in the pocket pet industry and how the use of antibiotics in pocket pets may select for antimicrobial resistance
• Discuss how animal and human health may both be impacted by antimicrobial resistance
• Describe how veterinarians in agriculture departments work with veterinarians and other health professionals in local, state, and federal health departments to investigate and control zoonotic disease
• Summarize how the use of antibiotics may select for the dissemination of gene cassettes conveying resistance to multiple antibiotics

• Discuss how antibiotics are frequently used in treatment of canine pyoderma
• List the factors to be considered when choosing antibiotic therapy
• Identify the underlying causes of canine pyoderma and possible diagnostic and treatment options
• Describe the importance of bacterial culture and susceptibility testing, and effective communication with the client
• Demonstrate understanding of how animal and human health can both be affected by antibiotic resistance

• Discuss the use antibiotics to treat feline lower urinary tract disease
• List factors that need to be considered when using antibiotic therapy in cases of feline lower urinary tract disease
• Identify the importance of bacterial culture results in the selection of an antibiotic

• Be aware of the guidelines for feline upper respiratory infections set by the International Society for Companion Animal Infectious Diseases (ISCAID)
• Name the underlying causes of feline upper respiratory infections
• Determine the appropriate diagnostic tests and interpretations for cases of feline upper respiratory infection
• Explain when the use of antibiotics is appropriate for cases of feline upper respiratory infections and which 2 antibiotics would be appropriate to use empirically
• Identify 3 alternative treatment options for antibiotics in cases of feline upper respiratory infection and describe when these treatment options are appropriate

• Outline how antibiotics were discovered and what drives the discovery of new antimicrobial drugs.
• Define and differentiate the following related terms: antibiotic, antimicrobial, anthelmintic, antiparasitic, and antifungal.
• Describe the different mechanisms of action for antimicrobial drugs, and associate these mechanisms with the common classes of antimicrobial drugs.
• Explain pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic factors that affect dose and duration of treatment needed to provide effective therapy for bacterial infections.
• Describe some important considerations in prescribing antimicrobial drugs to successfully treat infections in animals without promoting microbial drug resistance.