Bacteriophages Isolated from Chicken Meat and the Horizontal Transfer of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes.
Antimicrobial resistance in microbes poses a global and increasing threat to public health. The horizontal transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes was thought to be due largely to conjugative plasmids or transposons, with only a minor part being played by transduction through bacteriophages. However, whole-genome sequencing has recently shown that the latter mechanism could be highly important in the exchange of antimicrobial resistance genes between microorganisms and environments. The transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes by phages could underlie the origin of resistant bacteria found in food. We show that chicken meat carries a number of phages capable of transferring antimicrobial resistance. Of 243 phages randomly isolated from chicken meat, about a quarter (24.7%) were able to transduce resistance to one or more of the five antimicrobials tested into Escherichia coli ATCC 13706 (DSM 12242). Resistance to kanamycin was transduced the most often, followed by that to chloramphenicol, with four phages transducing tetracycline resistance and three transducing ampicillin resistance. Phages able to transduce antimicrobial resistance were isolated from 44% of the samples of chicken meat that we tested. The statistically significant (P = 0.01) relationship between the presence of phages transducing kanamycin resistance and E. coli isolates resistant to this antibiotic suggests that transduction may be an important mechanism for transferring kanamycin resistance to E. coli. It appears that the transduction of resistance to certain antimicrobials, e.g., kanamycin, not only is widely distributed in E. coli isolates found on meat but also could represent a major mechanism for resistance transfer. The result is of high importance for animal and human health.
Institute of Meat Hygiene, Meat Technology and Food Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.
Amira
A
Shousha
Institute of Meat Hygiene, Meat Technology and Food Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.
Nattakarn
N
Awaiwanont
Institute of Meat Hygiene, Meat Technology and Food Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.
Dmitrij
D
Sofka
Institute of Meat Hygiene, Meat Technology and Food Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.
Frans J M
FJ
Smulders
Institute of Meat Hygiene, Meat Technology and Food Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.
Peter
P
Paulsen
Institute of Microbiology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.
Michael P
MP
Szostak
Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Group, College of Medicine, Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom.
Tom
T
Humphrey
Institute of Meat Hygiene, Meat Technology and Food Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria friederike.hilbert@vetmeduni.ac.at.
Friederike
F
Hilbert
D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002645:Chickens; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000821:virology*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D006801:Humans; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology / Q000821:virology*; D014161:Transduction, Genetic
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins