Namaka Farms awarded research grant

Posted on: Staff Writer

From edition: August 7 2020 Strathmore Times

By Jacob Miller Times Reporter

Namaka Farms received a grant through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership for the work they are doing in antibiotic resistance. Bryan Thiessen (l-r) with Namaka Farms, Chestermere-Strathmore MLA Leela Aheer and Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen were on hand July 30 for the announcement.

Jacob Miller Photo

A local feedlot and farm operation has received a grant to conduct research into how to cost-effectively find and treat sick animals, while also minimizing antibiotic resistance.

Namaka Farms was awarded a grant of $174,500 through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

Veterinary consultant for Namaka Farms, Michael Jelinski, from Veterinary Agri-Health Services, says the grant will help them do research into methods to more easily sample multiple animals in a pen simultaneously.

“In order to insure we use antibiotics responsibly we monitor bacterial antibiotic resistance patterns in the cattle owned by our clients,” said Jelinski. “Typically, this is done by sampling a selected number of animals using a nasal swab and culturing the bacteria, and then testing them for sensitivity or resistance to a group of antibiotics.”

An example of being able to sample from multiple animals is from a watering bowl.

“This should allow us to get a larger, more representative sample of the bacterial populations across a whole pen of cattle instead of a smaller number of cattle that are sampled using nasal swabs,” said Jelinski.

Namaka Farms plans on sharing the findings of this project with the University of Calgary and the University of Saskatchewan so that other farms and feedlots in Alberta and Canada can benefit from the project.

“Namaka Farms’ top priority is the health and welfare of our cattle,” said Bryan Thiessen, manager/owner of Namaka Farms. “This funding provides an opportunity to show that antimicrobial sensitivity testing is a cost-effective tool for feedlot monitoring. By embracing innovation, we can continuously improve.”

The project is being funded through Alberta’s Accelerating the Advancement of Agricultural Innovation program under the Agricultural Partnership. The funding to Namaka Farms was announced by Alberta Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Devin Dreeshen and MLA for Chestemere-Strathmore Leela Aheer during a tour of Namaka Farms on July 30.