Antimicrobial resistance- and pathogen patterns in the fecal microbiota of sows and their offspring in German commercial pig farms

In this study, non-metric multidimensional scaling, hierarchical clustering, and l atent class analysis were used to determine the impact of antibiotic use on antibiotic resistance patterns and pathogen prevalence in 20 German pig farms. This may help to develop individualized health strategies. 802 fresh fecal samples were collected from sows and piglets from 20 piglet production and rearing farms at different production times (sows antepartum and postpartum, suckling piglets, weaned piglets). In addition, the use of antibiotics was recorded. DNA extracts were subjected to quantitative real-time qPCR with primers specific for antibiotic resistance genes (int1,sul1-3,dfrA1,mcr-1,blaCTX-M), and virulence factors of relevant bacteria (C.difficile,C.perfringens,Salmonella,Escherichia/Shigella/Hafnia,E.coli). Linear and logistic regression models were used to analyze the relationship between different antibiotics and the major genes contributing to the clustering of observations for the different animal groups. Clustering revealed different farm clusters for sows, suckling piglets, and weaned piglets, with the most remarkable diversity in antibiotic use among weaned piglets. Amoxicillin, lincomycin, and enrofloxacin were identified as the most probable cause of increased odds of the presence of relevant antibiotic resistance genes (mcr1,dfrA1,blaCTX-M). Still, direct effects of a specific antibiotic on its associated resistance gene were rare. Enrofloxacin and florfenicol favored...
Source: PLoS One - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research