A Single Intranasal Dose of Bacterial Therapeutics to Calves Confers Longitudinal Modulation of the Nasopharyngeal Microbiota: a Pilot Study
Samat Amat, Edouard Timsit, Matthew L. Workentine, Timothy Schwinghamer, Frank van der Meer, Yongmei Guo, Trevor W. Alexander
Abstract
Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) remains the most significant health challenge affecting the North American beef cattle industry and results in $3 billion in economic losses yearly. Current BRD control strategies mainly rely on antibiotics, with metaphylaxis commonly employed to mitigate BRD incidence in commercial feedlots. However, the emergence of multidrug-resistant BRD pathogens threatens to reduce the efficacy of antimicrobials. Here, we investigated the potential use of novel bacterial therapeutics (BTs) to modulate the nasopharyngeal microbiota in beef calves, which are commonly administered metaphylactic antibiotics to mitigate BRD when sourced from auction markets. By direct comparison of the BTs with an antibiotic commonly used for BRD metaphylaxis in feedlots, this study conveyed the potential use of the BTs to modulate respiratory microbiome and thereby improve resistance against BRD in feedlot cattle.