Plugging the leaks: antibiotic resistance at human–animal interfaces in low‐resource settings

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest public health challenges of our time. International efforts to curb resistance have largely focused on drug development and limiting unnecessary antibiotic use. However, in areas where water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure is lacking, we propose that bacterial flow between humans and animals can exacerbate the emergence and spread of resistant pathogens. Here, we describe the consequences of poor environmental controls by comparing mobile resistance elements among Escherichia coli recovered from humans and meat in Cambodia, a middle‐income country with substantial human–animal connectivity and unregulated antibiotic use. We identified identical mobile resistance elements and a conserved transposon region that were widely dispersed in both humans and animals, a phenomenon rarely observed in high‐income settings. Our findings indicate that plugging leaks at human–animal interfaces should be a critical part of addressing antibiotic resistance in low‐ and especially middle‐income countries.

Global diversity and evolution ofSalmonellaPanama, an understudied serovar causing gastrointestinal and invasive disease worldwide: a genomic epidemiology study

“…Detailed analysis of the draft genomes showed that most of the resistance genes ( aadA1 , aadA2 , cmlA1 , dfrA12 and tetA ) were encoded by an MDR cassette located on a single contiguous sequence (contig; Figure 3B). A BLAST search of the contig revealed 99·8% sequence identity to a 21·2 kb region of an 83·2kb plasmid (GenBank accession number CP044301) which had previously been identified in an E. coli isolate obtained from pork in Cambodia 13 .…”

Pediatric urinary tract infections caused by poultry-associated Escherichia coli

“…Despite this progress, tetracyclines are still routinely used in U.S. food animal production, which may explain the high prevalence of tetracycline resistance genes among the FZEC and meat isolates. Further investigations are needed to assess the variability in antimicrobial susceptibility among pediatric FZEC isolates in countries with different antimicrobial policies and practices ( 30 ).…”