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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been a growing problem for a number of years now, with resistance against antimicrobials key for human medicine being especially worrying. <\/p>\n
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However, new research has found that wildlife such as foxes and birds could be critical early warning systems for antibiotic resistance at the ecosystem level. <\/p>\n
The study, which was first published in the Frontiers of Microbiology journal, evaluates the presence of enzyme-encoding genes in wildlife faecal samples, which can prove resistance to essential antibiotics <\/a>like third-generation cephalosporins (3GCs), used to treat sepsis, pneumonia and meningitis. <\/p>\n These genes can spread through bacterial groups like ESKAPE, which are particularly resistant and can often sidestep antibacterial agents. One ESKAPE group bacterium, Klebsiella pneumoniae, has even spread much beyond systems and places directly exposed to antibiotics and can cause severe infections in humans. <\/p>\n \u201cWe isolated a high-risk ST307 clone of K pneumoniae and NDM-5 carbapenemase, an enzyme variant that can inactivate antibiotics, from wildlife living far from human activity,\u201d Dr Mauro Conter, an associate professor at the Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences at the University of Parma, said. <\/p>\n \u201cThis confirms the role of wildlife as reservoirs of clinically relevant resistance<\/a>, which means that wildlife surveillance could provide an early warning system of resistance spreading beyond clinical settings.\u201d<\/p>\n Birds and foxes provide warning signs of antibiotic resistance<\/p>\n The study included almost 500 faecal samples from crows, magpies, red foxes and several species of water birds. <\/p>\n These were taken while animals were moving as usual through rural, urban and wild areas, collecting AMR across regions and ecosystems without having received antibiotics themselves. They were tested for Klebsiella spp, a bacterial genus that includes K pneumoniae and other highly dangerous pathogens. <\/p>\n Klebsiella spp in particular produce carbapenemases, which can render last-resort antibiotics used to treat severe infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria<\/a> useless. <\/p>\n The results showed that birds are primarily responsible for dispersing resistance by air over long distances, whereas foxes contribute most to short-range AMR dissemination on land. <\/p>\n Klebsiella spp was present in 32 samples, while K pneumoniae was in 2% of samples, mainly in foxes and waterbirds. <\/p>\n