Emergence of fluoroquinolone resistant Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli among Australian chickens in the absence of fluoroquinolone use.

This study also demonstrates the need for vigilance in the form of surveillance for AMR based on robust sampling to manage AMR risks in the food-chain.ImportanceCampylobacter is one of the most common causes of gastroenteritis in humans with infections frequently resulting from exposure to under-cooked poultry products. Although human illness is typically self-limiting, a minority of cases do require antimicrobial therapy. Ensuring that Campylobacter originating from meat-chickens do not acquire resistance to fluoroquinolones is therefore a valuable outcome for public-health. Australia has never legalised the use of fluoroquinolones in commercial chickens and until now fluoroquinolone-resistant Campylobacter have not been detected in the Australian poultry. This structured survey of meat-chickens derived from all major Australian producers describes the unexpected emergence of fluoroquinolone resistance in Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli Genetic characterisation suggests that these isolates may have evolved outside of the Australian poultry sector and were introduced into poultry by humans, pest-species or wild birds. The findings dramatically underline the critical role of biosecurity in the overall fight against antimicrobial resistance. PMID: 32033955 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Environ Microbiol Source Type: research