Investigating Antibiotic-resistant Foal Pneumonia

Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of disease and death in foals, and the bacterium Rhodococcus equi is the most common cause of severe pneumonia in foals. In absence of an effective vaccine, control of R. equi infections relies heavily on antibiotic therapy. While this treatment strategy saves lives, resistance to the antibiotics commonly used to treat R. equi infections is on the rise. Researchers will study the biological mechanisms involved in R. equi drug resistance and use this new knowledge to develop strategies to prevent the spread of these resistant microorganisms.