Veterinarian Carissa Odland Studies Antibiotic Use

Animals, like humans, may need to take antibiotics when they’re sick. Antibiotic use in livestock, and how that usage may impact humans, is a complex and important issue. That’s why Carissa Odland, DVM, a veterinarian with Pipestone Veterinary Services in Pipestone, Minnesota, has made it her mission to explore this relationship and help farmers care for their herd while using antibiotics responsibly.

Dr. Odland grew up on a Minnesota sheep farm. Her passion for research led her to a master’s degree program at the University of Minnesota, where she is studying the relationship between the health of farm animals like pigs and the health of humans.

“Protecting the health of the public starts with protecting the health of the pig,” Dr. Odland said. That means preventing disease in pigs through vaccinations, the right environment, proper nutrition and quickly addressing any signs of disease, and then using antibiotics responsibly to treat illnesses.

“One of the fundamental questions veterinarians have is whether using antibiotics in the pig changes the resistance we find in the pig, population and environment,” she said.

Not all antibiotics are the same and not all antibiotics used in livestock are medically important for people. While there is no proven link between antibiotic resistant illness in people and antibiotic use in livestock, farmers are committed to understanding the antibiotic resistance issue, increasing transparency and proactively monitoring the emergence of antibiotic resistance in both humans and animals.

For example, Dr. Odland is part of a research project through the University of Minnesota and the National Pork Board to study whether antibiotic resistance patterns change when pigs are treated with an antibiotic, and if they change, how long the resistance remains in the pig or environment. The project tracks antibiotic resistance over the lifetime of those pigs. She is also looking at how to eliminate the transmission of resistance from one group of pigs to another.

So far, her research has shown that piglets carried antibiotic resistant bacteria shortly after weaning despite not receiving antibiotics during lactation and, during the wean-to-finish period, there was minimal significant impact on antimicrobial resistance of the bacteria tested, regardless of antibiotic treatments received.

Beyond these projects, Dr. Odland also is part of a team that leads the web-based PART (Pipestone Antibiotics Resistance Tracker), a program that began in 2017 and now includes more than 150 independent pig farmers. PART tracks resistance over time and benchmarks antibiotic use using the same metrics that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s National Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring Service uses for human resistance.

Beyond these projects, Dr. Odland also is part of a team that leads the web-based PART (Pipestone Antibiotics Resistance Tracker), a program that began in 2017 and now includes more than 150 independent pig farmers. PART tracks resistance over time and benchmarks antibiotic use using the same metrics that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s National Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring Service uses for human resistance.

“While the best practice is to reduce antibiotic use, we’re not aiming for zero antibiotic use,” Dr. Odland said. “We want to encourage responsible and sustainable antibiotic use.”
group of young pigs in a barn