A ‘Design a Giant Microbe’ competition and a ‘Swab for new antimicrobial producers' challenge were among the unusual activities staged by University of Nottingham Veterinary and Bioscience students taking part in European Antibiotic Resistance Day (Friday 18 November 2016).
The day was part of World Health Organisation’s ‘Antibiotic Resistance Week’. The aim is to raise global awareness of the growing threat to human and animal health from infections caused by bacteria which are becoming resistant to antibiotics.
The students and staff at the University’s Sutton Bonington campus also showcased the wide range of research going on into antimicrobial resistance at the Vet School and School of Biosciences.
One of the organisers, 4th year vet student Holly Hills, said: “As the vets and bioscientists of the future, we Nottingham students are keen to get involved in this global campaign as we are very aware of the current threat to health by antibiotic resistance. The activities we planned are great fun but also drive the message home in a simple way. The ‘swab and send’ challenge in particular will be very revealing when we find out what types of bacteria are on surfaces all around us. We also want to promote good infection control and the responsible use of antibiotics.”
The activities were led by undergraduate and postgraduate students alongside staff, from the Veterinary and Microbiology courses, the University of Nottingham Veterinary Society, Antibiotic Guardian Champion group and Next Generation Scientists.
Lecturer in Cellular Microbiology at the Nottingham Vet School, Dr Sabine Totemeyer, said: “This event is the perfect and fun opportunity for everybody to get involved, through making microbes, trying to find new antimicrobials and getting ideas for how they can help to prevent more antimicrobial resistance developing and spreading. It is a great One Health initiative all students and staff across the whole campus can get involved in.”
The day’s activities have been streamed on social media via:@NottinghamVets, @UoNBiosciences, @UniofNottingham @SVMSCMRG (Twitter) #NottsUni #AMR #stopthebugs #AGCstudents #AntibioticGuardian #EAAD2016 and on Facebook: UoNBiosciences AGCStudents
The event was sponsored by Bridging The Gap (Systems-level approaches to antimicrobial resistance), Hermes Fellowship University of Nottingham and Ceva Animal Health Ltd.
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with a “distinct” approach to internationalisation, which rests on those full-scale campuses in China and Malaysia, as well as a large presence in its home city.’ (Times Good University Guide 2016). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers and was named University of the Year for Graduate Employment in the 2017 The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide. It is ranked in the world’s top 75 by the QS World University Rankings 2015/16, and 8th in the UK for research power according to the Research Excellence Framework 2014. It has been voted the world’s greenest campus for four years running, according to Greenmetrics Ranking of World Universities.
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