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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) can feel like an abstract, far-away crisis until you realize how easily it travels through connected systems and how quietly it can persist when we only watch the “end product.” We talk with Dr. Pankaj Gaonkar about antimicrobial resistance in the U.S. poultry industry, starting with a clear definition of AMR and why it is a pressing global health and economic threat. From there, we dig into the uncomfortable reality that resistance can still be detected even as antimicrobial use declines, and why that “disconnect” matters for veterinarians, producers, and anyone who cares about food systems.

A big theme is scale and structure. Modern poultry production is often vertically integrated, moving birds through a coordinated chain from breeder farms and hatcheries to broiler grow-out and processing. That efficiency has a downside: if antimicrobial resistant bacteria emerge at one point, they can move through the system. We also unpack how disease pressure in high-density environments can influence therapeutic decisions, and how older antimicrobial exposure can leave behind residues and resistant organisms that continue to shape selection pressure over time.

The heart of our conversation is environmental surveillance and the One Health approach. Monitoring litter, soil, water, and air around poultry houses helps reveal where resistance is maintained and how it moves between “inside” and “outside” the farm. Pankaj explains key tools like metagenomics, qPCR, and culture-based methods, along with the real challenges around cost, standardization, and interpreting results in complex microbial communities. We close with practical roles for veterinarians and producers, and what smarter policy could look like to strengthen AMR monitoring without creating unnecessary burden.

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JAVMA article: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.25.07.0488

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A citation can be polished, specific, and completely fake and that’s the scary part. We sit down with Morna Conway, PhD, Scholarly Journal Consultant and JAVMA and AJVR Copy Editor Vic Schultz to unpack how generative AI tools like ChatGPT can hallucinate references, remixing real author names, familiar journal titles, and plausible article wording into sources that simply do not exist. If you write, review, edit, or read scientific articles in veterinary medicine, this conversation is a practical guide to protecting research integrity in the age of AI-assisted writing.

We walk through how these fabricated citations get discovered, from peer reviewers who know the field well enough to spot a suspicious claim to copy editors who notice missing DOIs, dead Crossref links, absent PMIDs, or volume and page details that don’t add up. Dr. Lisa Fortier shares how editorial workflows shape when problems are caught and why JAVMA and AJVR take a hard line: if hallucinated references are found, the editorial team can reject the manuscript even after acceptance because accuracy is non-negotiable for credible scientific publishing.

We also get specific about responsible AI use in scientific writing: disclose how you used AI, describe the workflow, and personally verify every output before submission. The best advice sounds old-school because it works: proofread, slow down, and click every DOI. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a rating and review to help more researchers find it.

JAVMA editorial: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.264.4.382

Scientific Reports article: Fabrication and errors in the bibliographic citations generated by ChatGPT | Scientific Reports

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A splenic mass is one of those findings that can flip a normal day into a crisis. You may have an older Labrador or Golden Retriever, an ultrasound that shows a splenic tumor, and an owner asking the question you cannot fully answer yet: “Is it cancer?” We sit down with Dr. Janet Grimes to unpack why that gap between suspicion and certainty is so hard in canine medicine and why better preoperative diagnostics for splenic masses could change everything from emergency decisions to long-term screening.

We walk through what veterinarians currently juggle when counseling clients, including the role of hemoabdomen, the wide spread in prognosis between benign lesions and canine hemangiosarcoma, and how rules of thumb like the double two-thirds rule fit (or do not fit) in different clinical scenarios. Then we zoom in on the science of microRNAs: tiny non-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression and can be detected in circulation, making them promising minimally invasive biomarkers for veterinary oncology.

Dr. Grimes explains how a multi-marker microRNA panel is built from blood samples and measured with quantitative RT-PCR, why panels can be more specific than single markers, and what it could look like to use this as a send-out test today with the longer-term goal of a cage-side diagnostic. We also discuss the real-world barriers: differentiating hemangiosarcoma from other splenic malignancies, avoiding misleading results in sick dogs, and integrating any new test as an adjunct to physical exam, imaging, and standard lab work.

If you care about earlier cancer detection in dogs, smarter decision-making around splenectomy, and the future of blood-based cancer diagnostics, listen through to the end and share this with a colleague. Subscribe, leave a rating and review, and tell us what question you most want a pre-op splenic mass test to answer.

AJVR articles: https://doi.org/10.2460/ajvr.25.07.0258 and https://doi.org/10.2460/ajvr.25.07.0250

INTERESTED IN SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT TO JAVMA ® OR AJVR ® ?

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JAVMA ® :

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JAVMA ® and AJVR ® LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/avma-journals