National laboratory-based surveillance system for antimicrobial resistance: a successful tool to support the control of antimicrobial resistance in the Netherlands

An important cornerstone in the control of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a well-designed quantitative system for the surveillance of spread and temporal trends in AMR. Since 2008, the Dutch national AMR surveillance system, based on routine data from medical microbiological laboratories (MMLs), has developed into a successful tool to support the control of AMR in the Netherlands. It provides background information for policy making in public health and healthcare services, supports development of empirical antibiotic therapy guidelines and facilitates in-depth research. In addition, participation of the MMLs in the national AMR surveillance network has contributed to sharing of knowledge and quality improvement. A future improvement will be the implementation of a new semantic standard together with standardised data transfer, which will reduce errors in data handling and enable a more real-time surveillance. Furthermore, the

Stereotypic horses (Equus caballus) are not cognitively impaired

Stereotypies in animals are thought to arise from an interaction between genetic predisposition and sub-optimal housing conditions. In domestic horses, a well-studied stereotypy is crib-biting, an abnormal behaviour that appears to help individuals to cope with stressful situations. One prominent hypothesis states that animals affected by stereotypies are cognitively less flexible compared to healthy controls, due to sensitization of a specific brain area, the basal ganglia. The aim of this study was to test this hypothesis in crib-biting and healthy controls, using a cognitive task, reversal learning, which has been used as a diagnostic for basal ganglia dysfunction. The procedure consisted of exposing subjects to four learning tasks; first and second acquisition, and their reversals. For each task, we measured the number of trials to reach criterion and heart rate and heart-rate variability. Importantly, we did not try to prevent crib-biters from executing their stereotypic behaviour. We found that the first reversal learning task required the largest number of trials, confirming its challenging nature. Interestingly, the second reversal learning task required significantly fewer trials to reach criterion, suggesting generalisation learning. However, we did not find any performance differences across groups; both stereotypic and control animals required a similar numbers of trials and did not differ in their physiological responses. Our results thus challenge the widely held belief that crib-biting horses, and stereotypic animals more generally, are cognitively impaired. We conclude that cognitive underperformance may occur in stereotypic horses if they are prevented from crib-biting to cope with experienced stress.PostprintPeer reviewe

Co-susceptibility according to EUCAST breakpoints in <i>E. coli</i> harboring the five most common ESBL genes.

<p>Co-susceptibility according to EUCAST breakpoints in <i>E. coli</i> harboring the five most common ESBL genes.</p

Identification of ESBL-groups as determined by ESBL array and PCR in 3^rd generation cephalosporin resistant Enterobacteriaceae.

<p>Note: 26 isolates contained 2 ESBLs.</p

Identification of ESBL β-lactamase genes in 3^rd generation cephalosporin resistant Enterobacteriaceae.

<p>Identification of ESBL β-lactamase genes in 3^rd generation cephalosporin resistant Enterobacteriaceae.</p

Presence of AmpC β-lactamase genes in isolates with a MIC ≥16 mg/L for cefoxitin.

*<p>GenBank Number = EF125014.1, ** = presumed.</p

Number of clusters for each cluster size in DiversiLab using >98% similarity per species.

<p>Number of clusters for each cluster size in DiversiLab using >98% similarity per species.</p