New Approaches to Brachyspira Diagnosis Promises Veterinarians Added Information

Researchers with Western College of Veterinary Medicine are hoping new approaches to the diagnosis of Brachyspira diarrhea will provide veterinarians with more information on which to prescribe treatment. Brachyspira is a family of bacteria, some species of which cause disease while others are harmless.

 

The Western College of Veterinary Medicine is reformatting the diagnosis of Brachyspira diarrhea to identify the species and appropriate treatment and exploring the prospects of adding antimicrobial sensitivity testing to the mix.

 

Dr. John Harding, a Professor with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, says the obvious benefit is in getting real time information back to veterinarians.

 

 

Whether that is better diagnostics or more targeted diagnostics or whether that is antimicrobial sensitivity testing, that is value information that the veterinarian needs. I think with the diagnostics we're going to try to reformat our PCR versus our culture technology along more diagnostic lines.

 

We don't know exactly how we're going to do this but the first question would be, "are you interested in diagnosing swine dysentery on a farm?" That could be done very simply with PCR tests, so that's rapid turn around, relatively inexpensive and get that information back as quickly as we can. The second question would be a little bit more complex and that could be what other Brachyspira could be present in the sample causing diarrhea.

 

With that we may need some culture based diagnostic tests which are certainly going to take more time and will be more involved but the benefits of that are that we would be able to diagnose what other forms of Brachyspira and potentially novel Brachyspira that could be present in that sample that we wouldn't otherwise do if we just took a very simple PCR based approach to this.

Video: Dicamba Returns for Georgia Farmers: What the New EPA Ruling Means for Cotton Growers

After being unavailable in 2024 due to registration issues, dicamba products are returning for Georgia farmers this growing season — but under strict new conditions.

In this report from Tifton, Extension Weed Specialist Stanley Culpepper explains the updated EPA ruling, including new application limits, mandatory training requirements, and the need for a restricted use pesticide license. Among the key changes: a cap of two ½-pound applications per year and the required use of an approved volatility reduction agent with every application.

For Georgia cotton producers, the ruling is significant. According to Taylor Sills with the Georgia Cotton Commission, the vast majority of cotton planted in the state carries the dicamba-tolerant trait — meaning farmers had been paying for technology they couldn’t use.

While environmental groups have expressed concerns over spray drift, Georgia growers have reduced off-target pesticide movement by more than 91% over the past decade. Still, this two-year registration period will come with increased scrutiny, making stewardship and compliance more important than ever.