Dr. Robert M. Friendship

 

Email: rfriends@ovc.uoguelph.ca

Office: 103 - Clinical Research
Ext: 54022
Lab:
Ext:

Profile

My principal areas of interest are swine health management, disease surveillance and pre-harvest aspects of food safety. My time is fairly equally divided between teaching and research. Both of these activities bring me into contact with farmers and practitioners on a regular basis.

Education

DVM, MSc - University of Guelph
DipABVP - Swine Health Management

Research

• Sow reproduction and longevity- methods to synchronize ovulation, and techniques to stimulate synchronized estrus in gilts
• Food safety –On-farm control of Salmonella, prevalence of MRSA and Clostridium difficile and other zoonotic pathogens on pig farms, as well as antimicrobial resistance
• Interaction of diseases and environmental factors
• Syndromic surveillance using veterinary clinics and other data sources

Teaching

• Swine health management components of clinical medicine courses in the undergraduate veterinary curriculum and a graduate course in swine health management.
• At present I am an advisor or co-advisor for 8 graduate students

Links

Professional Experience & Honours

Selected Publications

Farzan, A. V.; Friendship, R. M.; Poppe C, Martin L, Dewey C E, Funk J. Molecular epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella Typhimurium on Ontario swine farms. Can J Vet Res. 72: 188-195, 2008.

Khanna T, Friendship R, Dewey C, Weese JS. Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization in pigs and pig farmers. Vet Microbiol 128:298-303. 2008.

Poljak Z, Friendship RM, MacNab B, Carman S, Dewey C. Investigation of exposure to swine influenza viruses in Ontario finisher herds in 2004 and 2005. Prev Vet Med. 83: 24-40, 2008.

Poljak Z, C E. Dewey, S. W Martin, J Christensen, S Carman, R M. Friendship. Prevalence of and risk factors for influenza in southern Ontario swine herds in 2001 and 2003. Can J Vet Res 72:7-17, 2008.

Farzan, A. V.; Friendship, R. M.; Dewey, C. E.; Muckle, A. C.; Gray, J. T. ; Funk, J. Distribution of Salmonella serovars and phagetypes on 80 Ontario swine farms in 2004. Can Vet Res J 72: 1-6, 2008.

Young B., Dewey C.E., Friendship R.M. Prevalence and causes of inappropriate temperatures in on-farm semen storage units in Ontario. Swine Health Prod. 16:92-95.

Varela N P, R Friendship, C Dewey, A Valdivieso. Comparison of agar dilution and E-test® for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Campylobacter coli isolates recovered from 80 Ontario swine farms. Can J Vet Res, 72: 168-174, 2008.

Amezcua M.R., Friendship R., Dewey C., de Lange C., Weese S., Reid G. Effects on growth performance, feed efficiency and health of weanling pigs fed fermented liquid whey inoculated with lactic acid bacteria that inhibit Escherichia coli in vitro. J Swine Health Prod. 15: 320-329. 2007.

Cassar G, Kirkwood R N, Seguin M J, Widowski T M, Farzan A, Zanella A J, Friendship RM. Influence of stage of gestation at grouping and presence of boars on farrowing rate and litter size of sows housed in groups. J Swine Health Prod. 16: 81-85.

Poljak Z, C E. Dewey, S. W Martin, J Christensen, S Carman, R M. Friendship. Spatial clustering of swine influenza in Ontario on the basis of herd-level disease status with different misclassification errors. Prev Vet Med. 81:236-249, 2007.

Amezcua, M.R., Friendship, R. M., Dewey, C. E., Weese, S., de Lange, C.F.M. The effect of feeding fermented liquid whey+ dextrose inoculated with specific lactic acid bacteria of pig origin to weanling pigs challenged with Escherichia coli O149:K91:F4. Vet Therapeutics 8: 209-222, 2007.

Amezcua, M.R., Friendship R. M., Dewey C. E. An investigation of the presence of post-weaning diarrhea caused by Escherichia coli O149:K91:K88 (F4) on pig farms in southern Ontario and the use of antimicrobials and risk factors associated with the problem. Can Vet J.49:39-45, 2008.

MacInnes J. I, M. Gottschalk, A. G. Lone, D. S. Metcalf, S. Ojha, T. Rosendal, S. B. Watson, R. M. Friendship. Prevalence of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, A. suis, Haemophilus parasuis, Pasteurella multocida, and Streptococcus suis in representative Ontario swine herds. (in press) Can J Vet Res. 2008.

Jamalludeen N., R. P. Johnson, R. Friendship, A.M. Kropinski, E.J. Lingohor, C. L. Gyles. Isolation and characterization of nine phages that lyse O149 enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. J Vet Micro 124:47-57, 2007.

Abad M, JC Garcia, DJ Sprecher, G Cassar, RM Friendship, MM Buhr and RN Kirkwood. Effect of insemination–ovulation interval and addition of seminal plasma on sow fertility to insemination of cryopreserved sperm. Reprod Dom Anim 42: 418-422, 2007.

Abad M, DJ Sprecher, P Ross, RM Friendship, RN Kirkwood. Effect of sperm cryopreservation and supplementing semen doses with seminal plasma on the establishment of a sperm reservoir in gilts. Reproduction in Domestic Animals. 42: 149-152. 2007.

Varela N.P., Friendship R.M., Dewey C.E. Prevalence of resistance to 11 antimicrobials among Campylobacter coli isolated from pigs on 80 grower-finisher farms in Ontario. Can J Vet Res 71: 189-194, 2007.

Varela NP, Friendship RM, Dewey CE. Prevalence of Campylobacter spp isolated from grower-finisher pigs in Ontario. Can Vet J 48: 515-518, 2007.

Mattison K., Shukla A., Cook A., Pollari F., Friendship R., Kelton D., Bidawid S., Farber JM. Human Noroviruses in swine and cattle. Emerg Infect Dis 2007. http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/13/8/1184.htm

Bennett-Stewart K., Cassar G., Plante C., Friendship R.M., Zak L. Ovulation induction protocol using equine chorionic gonadotropin and porcine luteinizing hormone in the weaned sow. J Swine Health Prod. 15: 194-197, 2007.

Farzan A., R.M. Friendship, C. E. Dewey. Evaluation of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests and culture for determining Salmonella status of a pig herd. Epidemiology and Infection. 135: 238-244, 2007.