One of the key goals of ARMADA is to provide bioinformatics and surveillance tools to track the origin of antibiotic resistant bacteria that infect humans, i.e. to find their natural reservoirs from which their spread could be contained. Considering that antibiotics are being used to treat infections in pets and farm animals and to increase weight gain in the livestock, domesticated animals could represent an important source of antibiotic resistance in humans. Also, intrinsic connection between natural environment and waste products of human activity and farming, results in presence of antibiotic traces and circulation of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the soil and lakes. To understand to what extent the domesticated animals and environmental sites are currently contributing to the antibiotic resistant infections in patients, we need to partner with veterinary and environmental protection professionals to sample the resistant bacteria from non-human reservoirs.
We would like to invite specialists from or connected to microbiology laboratories that isolate bacteria from animal or environmental sources to provide us with bacterial isolates that are routinely obtained as part of veterinary diagnostics or environment surveillance, considering that:
- the sampling of isolated bacteria does not compromise the diagnostics or surveillance protocol;
- the original animal or environmental specimen type is known;
- the bacterial sample is likely to represent a pure culture;
- the isolated bacteria belong to the species of a medical significance;
- the bacteria is resistant to clinically relevant antibiotic(s), and
- the shipment is received in a timely manner and in a condition workable for downstream processing by ARMADA staff (sub-culturing, antibiogram testing, genetic analysis, etc).
On the ARMADA’s end we will:
- supply pre-coded collection swab tubes for each type of specimen with a submission label; including brief protocols describing the specimen collection, storage and shipment instructions,
- provide pre-paid return envelopes/containers that are compliant with local and national Hazardous Material Shipping guidelines;
- pay your offices processing fees for each sample shipped to compensate for the effort involved in specimen collection and shipment.
To initiate discussions of partnering with ARMADA or to obtain any additional information please contact us using the form below. A special representative will be assigned to work with you and address all your possible needs and concerns.