Educational impact of a bacteriological training program and field assessment of antimicrobial susceptibility testing among bovine veterinarians in Japan.

Authors

Misaki Akiyoshi, Akira Fukuda, Masaru Usui

Published in

The Journal of veterinary medical science. Oct 26, 2026. Epub Oct 26, 2026.

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health concern, and appropriate antimicrobial use in food-producing animal medicine requires accurate bacteriological diagnosis. However, the effectiveness of bacteriological training and the reliability of in-house antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) in food-animal practice remain unclear. We assessed preliminary organism identification accuracy and the impact of a bacteriological training program among bovine veterinarians affiliated with NOSAI Hokkaido, Japan, and evaluated disk diffusion AST variability using the same Escherichia coli isolate. Preliminary identification accuracy increased from 37% (35/94) before training to 91% (86/94) immediately afterward. Pre-training accuracy was significantly higher among frequent testers than among participants who performed no routine bacteriological testing, whereas post-training accuracy was high across all three testing-frequency groups. In the AST assessment, inhibition zone diameters varied substantially across all six antimicrobial disks, and discordant susceptible/resistant (S/R) interpretations occurred in more than 50% of participants for two agents. Multivariable generalized estimating equation analyses showed that smear technique was significantly associated with discordant S/R interpretations, whereas agar medium was not significantly associated with discordance after adjustment. The association between inoculum quantity and discordance could not be reliably established because only two participants were classified in the appropriate-inoculum category. These findings demonstrate the immediate benefit of structured practical training for improving preliminary organism identification and highlight the need to standardize field-based AST, particularly smear technique. Wider adoption of the simplified disk diffusion procedures described in the national mastitis guidebook may improve AST consistency in clinical practice.

PMID:
42927915
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 26 Oct 2026.

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