Penn Vet’s Ryan Hospital and New Bolton Center’s Infection Prevention and Biosecurity Programs are focusing on infection prevention, control measures, and biosecurity strategies to protect the animals, people, and communities served by its hospitals and facilities.
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Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet) is addressing the evolving challenge of drug-resistant bacteria with comprehensive infection prevention and control measures, as well as biosecurity strategies, to protect the animals, people, and communities served by its hospitals and facilities.
Felicia Divito, New Bolton Center’s biosecurity administrative coordinator, remotely operates Tru-D, the center’s UV-C-emitting robot.
(Image: Courtesy of Penn Vet)
Ryan Hospital and New Bolton Center each have dedicated infection prevention and control leaders responsible for developing, monitoring, and implementing disease control protocols, as well as educating staff and students on veterinary infection prevention. They’ve even brought in high-tech big guns—robots that zap microscopic offenders, eradicating them with blasts of ultraviolet germicidal light.
“Both Ryan Hospital and New Bolton Center have established robust infection prevention and control programs, striving to set the gold standard in veterinary medicine,” says Donna Oakley, Ryan Hospital’s director of clinical governance.
Ryan Hospital’s program got its start in response to an outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) at the hospital in 2018. Stephen D. Cole, an assistant professor of clinical microbiology, and Oakley were among two researchers who developed a program to address antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
CRE are listed as major antimicrobial resistance threats by both the World Health Organization and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cole’s research has focused on tracking the spread of CRE in companion animals across the United States, including the first national prevalence study in dogs and cats.
In a study published this year in Clinical Infectious Diseases, Cole and fellow researchers found strong evidence that CRE can be transmitted between animals and humans, making it a firmly established One Health issue, and that CRE is on the rise.
“We implement evidence-based practices in an ever-changing environment to respond to concerns in real-time,” says Cole. “I think what is best about our program, though, is that we are committed to constantly making it even better to protect our patients, our community, and, ultimately, the world by stemming the tide of antimicrobial resistance.”
This story is by Rita Giordano. Read more at Penn Vet.
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