Use of Antibiotics in Animals and Antimicrobial Resistance

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Antibiotics in Animal Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2024) | Viewed by 7566

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Enteropathogens, Veterinary, Food and Environmental Microbiology (LEMA), Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Fluminense Federal University (UFF), Niterói 24210-130, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Interests: virulence; antimicrobial resistance; enteropathogens; Escherichia coli pathotypes; One Health

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Enteropathogens, Veterinary, Food and Environmental Microbiology (LEMA), Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Fluminense Federal University (UFF), Niterói 24210-130, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Interests: antimicrobial resistance; bacterial virulence; environmental microbiology; microbial ecology; One Health

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Gram Positive Cocci (LCGP), Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Fluminense Federal University (UFF), Niterói 24210-130, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Interests: virulence; antimicrobial resistance; molecular epidemiology; gram positive cocci; bovine mastitis; medical and veterinary microbiology; One Health

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The twentieth century was the golden age of antibiotics discovery, with large production and applicability and a consequent reduction in the exorbitant morbidity and mortality caused by bacterial infections. However, the intense use of these drugs over the years has led to the worldwide selection and dissemination of multidrug-resistant bacteria (MDRB). MDRBs have also been increasingly reported in different animal species, varying according to geographic area and the source of isolation, with genetic lineages suggesting interspecies transmission. Resistance genes selected by antibiotic use in animals can also be transferred to susceptible bacteria, contributing to the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Thus, antibiotic use in animals can have consequences ranging from economic losses to public health threats. Several strategies have been proposed to combat AMR with a One Health approach, and studies in different areas, especially covering veterinary microbiology, are essential to support these initiatives. Therefore, this Special Issue welcomes submissions of original research articles/reviews on the prevalence, characterization, and epidemiology of MDRB isolated from animals; the antimicrobial activity of new drugs for veterinary use; the evaluation of methods for the AMR detection of strains of animal origin; as well as submissions clarifying the impact of the veterinary use of antibiotics on public health.

Prof. Dr. Aloysio de Mello Figueiredo Cerqueira
Prof. Dr. Júlia Peixoto Albuquerque
Prof. Dr. Renata Fernandes Rabello
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • antibacterial agents
  • antimicrobial resistance
  • epidemiology
  • genomics
  • animals
  • one health
  • antimicrobial sensitivity tests

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 5155 KiB  
Article
Antibiotic Cocktail Effects on Intestinal Microbial Community, Barrier Function, and Immune Function in Early Broiler Chickens
by Waseem Abbas, Ruichen Bi, Muhammad Dilshad Hussain, Alia Tajdar, Fangshen Guo, Yuming Guo and Zhong Wang
Antibiotics 2024, 13(5), 413; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics13050413 - 30 Apr 2024
Viewed by 425
Abstract
This study investigated the effects of an antibiotic cocktail on intestinal microbial composition, mechanical barrier structure, and immune functions in early broilers. One-day-old healthy male broiler chicks were treated with a broad-spectrum antibiotic cocktail (ABX; neomycin, ampicillin, metronidazole, vancomycin, and kanamycin, 0.5 g/L [...] Read more.
This study investigated the effects of an antibiotic cocktail on intestinal microbial composition, mechanical barrier structure, and immune functions in early broilers. One-day-old healthy male broiler chicks were treated with a broad-spectrum antibiotic cocktail (ABX; neomycin, ampicillin, metronidazole, vancomycin, and kanamycin, 0.5 g/L each) or not in drinking water for 7 and 14 days, respectively. Sequencing of 16S rRNA revealed that ABX treatment significantly reduced relative Firmicutes, unclassified Lachnospiraceae, unclassified Oscillospiraceae, Ruminococcus torques, and unclassified Ruminococcaceae abundance in the cecum and relative Firmicutes, Lactobacillus and Baccillus abundance in the ileum, but significantly increased richness (Chao and ACE indices) and relative Enterococcus abundance in the ileum and cecum along with relatively enriched Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Enterococcus levels in the ileum following ABX treatment for 14 days. ABX treatment for 14 days also significantly decreased intestinal weight and length, along with villus height (VH) and crypt depth (CD) of the small intestine, and remarkably increased serum LPS, TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IgG levels, as well as intestinal mucosa DAO and MPO activity. Moreover, prolonged use of ABX significantly downregulated occludin, ZO-1, and mucin 2 gene expression, along with goblet cell numbers in the ileum. Additionally, chickens given ABX for 14 days had lower acetic acid, butyric acid, and isobutyric acid content in the cecum than the chickens treated with ABX for 7 days and untreated chickens. Spearman correlation analysis found that those decreased potential beneficial bacteria were positively correlated with gut health-related indices, while those increased potential pathogenic strains were positively correlated with gut inflammation and gut injury-related parameters. Taken together, prolonged ABX application increased antibiotic-resistant species abundance, induced gut microbiota dysbiosis, delayed intestinal morphological development, disrupted intestinal barrier function, and perturbed immune response in early chickens. This study provides a reliable lower-bacteria chicken model for further investigation of the function of certain beneficial bacteria in the gut by fecal microbiota transplantation into germ-free or antibiotic-treated chickens. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Use of Antibiotics in Animals and Antimicrobial Resistance)
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13 pages, 2164 KiB  
Article
Detection of Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL)-Producing Enterobacteriaceae from Diseased Broiler Chickens in Lusaka District, Zambia
by Chikwanda Chileshe, Misheck Shawa, Nelson Phiri, Joseph Ndebe, Cynthia Sipho Khumalo, Chie Nakajima, Masahiro Kajihara, Hideaki Higashi, Hirofumi Sawa, Yasuhiko Suzuki, Walter Muleya and Bernard Mudenda Hang’ombe
Antibiotics 2024, 13(3), 259; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics13030259 - 15 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1053
Abstract
Poultry products in Zambia form an integral part of the human diet in many households, as they are cheap and easy to produce. The burden of poultry diseases has, however, remained a major challenge. Growing consumer demand for poultry products in Zambia has [...] Read more.
Poultry products in Zambia form an integral part of the human diet in many households, as they are cheap and easy to produce. The burden of poultry diseases has, however, remained a major challenge. Growing consumer demand for poultry products in Zambia has resulted in non-prudent antimicrobial use on farms, intending to prevent and treat poultry diseases for growth optimisation and maximising profits. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the different types of bacteria causing diseases in chickens in Lusaka and to detect the extended-spectrum lactamase (ESBL)-encoding genes. We collected 215 samples from 91 diseased chickens at three post-mortem facilities and screened them for Gram-negative bacteria. Of these samples, 103 tested positive for various clinically relevant Enterobacteriaceae, including Enterobacter (43/103, 41.7%), Escherichia coli (20/103, 19.4%), Salmonella (10/103, 9.7%), and Shigella (8/103, 7.8%). Other isolated bacteria included Yersinia, Morganella, Proteus, and Klebsiella, which accounted for 21.4%. E. coli, Enterobacter, Salmonella, and Shigella were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing. The results revealed that E. coli, Enterobacter, and Shigella were highly resistant to tetracycline, ampicillin, amoxicillin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, while Salmonella showed complete susceptibility to all tested antibiotics. The observed resistance patterns correlated with antimicrobial usage estimated from sales data from a large-scale wholesale and retail company. Six (6/14, 42.9%) E. coli isolates tested positive for blaCTX-M, whilst eight (8/14, 57.1%) Enterobacter samples tested positive for blaTEM. Interestingly, four (4/6, 66.7%) of the E. coli isolates carrying blaCTX-M-positive strains were also positive for blaTEM. Sanger sequencing of the PCR products revealed that five (5/6, 83.3%) of the abovementioned isolates possessed the blaCTX-M-15 allele. The results suggest the presence of potentially pathogenic ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae in poultry, threatening public health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Use of Antibiotics in Animals and Antimicrobial Resistance)
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15 pages, 3887 KiB  
Article
Effects of Antibiotic Residues on Fish Gut Microbiome Dysbiosis and Mucosal Barrier-Related Pathogen Susceptibility in Zebrafish Experimental Model
by Jun Hyeok Yang, Jeong Woo Park, Ho Sung Kim, Seungki Lee, Aaron M. Yerke, Yogini S. Jaiswal, Leonard L. Williams, Sungmin Hwang and Ki Hwan Moon
Antibiotics 2024, 13(1), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics13010082 - 15 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1495
Abstract
The symbiotic community of microorganisms in the gut plays an important role in the health of the host. While many previous studies have been performed on the interactions between the gut microbiome and the host in mammals, studies in fish are still lacking. [...] Read more.
The symbiotic community of microorganisms in the gut plays an important role in the health of the host. While many previous studies have been performed on the interactions between the gut microbiome and the host in mammals, studies in fish are still lacking. In this study, we investigated changes in the intestinal microbiome and pathogen susceptibility of zebrafish (Danio rerio) following chronic antibiotics exposure. The chronic antibiotics exposure assay was performed on zebrafish for 30 days using oxytetracycline (Otc), sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (Smx/Tmp), or erythromycin (Ery), which are antibiotics widely used in the aquaculture industry. The microbiome analysis indicated that Fusobacteria, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes were the dominant phyla in the gut microbiome of the zebrafish used in this study. However, in Smx/Tmp-treated zebrafish, the compositions of Fusobacteria and Proteobacteria were changed significantly, and in Ery-treated zebrafish, the compositions of Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were altered significantly. Although alpha diversity analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the richness, beta diversity analysis revealed a community imbalance in the gut microbiome of all chronically antibiotics-exposed zebrafish. Intriguingly, in zebrafish with dysbiosis in the gut microbiome, the pathogen susceptibility to Edwardsiella piscicida, a representative Gram-negative fish pathogen, was reduced. Gut microbiome imbalance resulted in a higher count of goblet cells in intestinal tissue and an upregulation of genes related to the intestinal mucosal barrier. In addition, as innate immunity was enhanced by the increased mucosal barrier, immune and stress-related gene expression in the intestinal tissue was downregulated. In this study, we provide new insight into the effect of gut microbiome dysbiosis on pathogen susceptibility. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Use of Antibiotics in Animals and Antimicrobial Resistance)
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19 pages, 2580 KiB  
Article
The Susceptibility Trends of Respiratory and Enteric Porcine Pathogens to Last-Resource Antimicrobials
by Anna Vilaró, Elena Novell, Vicens Enrique-Tarancon, Jordi Baliellas, Lourdes Migura-García and Lorenzo Fraile
Antibiotics 2023, 12(11), 1575; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12111575 - 28 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1162
Abstract
Monitoring the antimicrobial susceptibility of last-resource antimicrobials for veterinary pathogens is urgently needed from a one-health perspective. The objective of this study was to analyze the antimicrobial susceptibility trends of Spanish porcine bacteria to quinolones, cephalosporins, and polymyxins. Isolates of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, [...] Read more.
Monitoring the antimicrobial susceptibility of last-resource antimicrobials for veterinary pathogens is urgently needed from a one-health perspective. The objective of this study was to analyze the antimicrobial susceptibility trends of Spanish porcine bacteria to quinolones, cephalosporins, and polymyxins. Isolates of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, Pasteurella multocida, and Escherichia coli were isolated from sick pigs from 2019 to 2022. An antimicrobial susceptibility test was determined based on the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) following an internationally accepted methodology. The MIC categorization was based on distributing the range of MIC values in four categories, with category one being the most susceptible (lowest MIC value) and category four the least susceptible (highest MIC value). Moreover, clinical susceptibility (susceptible/non-susceptible) was also determined according to the CLSI and EUCAST clinical breakpoints. A logistic and multinomial logistic regression model was used to analyze the susceptibility data for dichotomized and categorized MIC data, respectively, for any pair of antimicrobial/microorganism. In general terms, the antimicrobial susceptibility of pig bacteria to these antimicrobials remained stable or increased in the last four years in Spain. In the case of A. pleuropneumoniae and quinolones, a significant temporal trend was observed where isolates from 2020 had significantly increased odds of being more susceptible than isolates from 2019. In the case of E. coli and polymyxins, a significant temporal trend was observed where isolates from 2020 and 2021 had significantly increased odds of being more susceptible than isolates from 2019 and 2020, respectively. Finally, significant odds of being less susceptible were only observed for cephalosporins and E. coli for 2020 versus 2019, stagnating for the rest of study period. These results provide sound data on critically important antimicrobials in swine medicine. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Use of Antibiotics in Animals and Antimicrobial Resistance)
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16 pages, 1967 KiB  
Article
Microbiota and Resistome Analysis of Colostrum and Milk from Dairy Cows Treated with and without Dry Cow Therapies
by Dhrati V. Patangia, Ghjuvan Grimaud, Kevin Linehan, R. Paul Ross and Catherine Stanton
Antibiotics 2023, 12(8), 1315; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12081315 - 14 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1383
Abstract
This study investigated the longitudinal impact of methods for the drying off of cows with and without dry cow therapy (DCT) on the microbiota and resistome profile in colostrum and milk samples from cows. Three groups of healthy dairy cows (n = [...] Read more.
This study investigated the longitudinal impact of methods for the drying off of cows with and without dry cow therapy (DCT) on the microbiota and resistome profile in colostrum and milk samples from cows. Three groups of healthy dairy cows (n = 24) with different antibiotic treatments during DCT were studied. Colostrum and milk samples from Month 0 (M0), 2 (M2), 4 (M4) and 6 (M6) were analysed using whole-genome shotgun-sequencing. The microbial diversity from antibiotic-treated groups was different and higher than that of the non-antibiotic group. This difference was more evident in milk compared to colostrum, with increasing diversity seen only in antibiotic-treated groups. The microbiome of antibiotic-treated groups clustered separately from the non-antibiotic group at M2-, M4- and M6 milk samples, showing the effect of antibiotic treatment on between-group (beta) diversity. The non-antibiotic group did not show a high relative abundance of mastitis-causing pathogens during early lactation and was more associated with genera such as Psychrobacter, Serratia, Gordonibacter and Brevibacterium. A high relative abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) was observed in the milk of antibiotic-treated groups with the Cephaguard group showing a significantly high abundance of genes conferring resistance to cephalosporin, aminoglycoside and penam classes. The data support the use of non-antibiotic alternatives for drying off in cows. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Use of Antibiotics in Animals and Antimicrobial Resistance)
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11 pages, 2900 KiB  
Article
First Detection of mcr-9 in a Multidrug-Resistant Escherichia coli of Animal Origin in Italy Is Not Related to Colistin Usage on a Pig Farm
by Flavia Guarneri, Cristina Bertasio, Claudia Romeo, Nicoletta Formenti, Federico Scali, Giovanni Parisio, Sabrina Canziani, Chiara Boifava, Federica Guadagno, Maria Beatrice Boniotti and Giovanni Loris Alborali
Antibiotics 2023, 12(4), 689; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12040689 - 1 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1513
Abstract
The emergence of colistin resistance raises growing concerns because of its use as a last-resort antimicrobial for the treatment of severe gram-negative bacterial infections in humans. Plasmid-borne mobile colistin resistance genes (mcr) are particularly worrisome due to their high propensity to [...] Read more.
The emergence of colistin resistance raises growing concerns because of its use as a last-resort antimicrobial for the treatment of severe gram-negative bacterial infections in humans. Plasmid-borne mobile colistin resistance genes (mcr) are particularly worrisome due to their high propensity to spread. An mcr-9-positive Escherichia coli was isolated from a piglet in Italy, representing the first isolation of this gene from an E. coli of animal origin in the country. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) revealed that mcr-9 was borne by an IncHI2 plasmid carrying several other resistance genes. The strain was indeed phenotypically resistant to six different antimicrobial classes, including 3rd and 4th generation cephalosporins. Despite the presence of mcr-9, the isolate was susceptible to colistin, probably because of a genetic background unfavourable to mcr-9 expression. The lack of colistin resistance, coupled with the fact that the farm of origin had not used colistin in years, suggests that mcr-9 in such a multidrug-resistant strain can be maintained thanks to the co-selection of neighbouring resistance genes, following usage of different antimicrobials. Our findings highlight how a comprehensive approach, integrating phenotypical testing, targeted PCR, WGS-based techniques, and information on antimicrobial usage is crucial to shed light on antimicrobial resistance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Use of Antibiotics in Animals and Antimicrobial Resistance)
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