Antimicrobial resistance genes in marine bacteria and human uropathogenic Escherichia coli from a region of intensive aquaculture. Issue 5 (10th September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tomova, Alexandra; Ivanova, Larisa; Buschmann, Alejandro H.; Rioseco, Maria Luisa; Kalsi, Rajinder K.; Godfrey, Henry P.; Cabello, Felipe C.
• Is Part Of: Environmental microbiology reports. Volume 7:Issue 5(2015)
• Page Start: 803
• Page End: 809
• Publication Date: 2015-09-10
• Subjects: Microbial ecology -- Periodicals; Environmental Microbiology -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 579.17
• DOI: 10.1111/1758-2229.12327
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1758-2229

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Summary</title> <p>Antimicrobials are heavily used in Chilean salmon aquaculture. We previously found significant differences in antimicrobial‐resistant bacteria between sediments from an aquaculture and a non‐aquaculture site. We now show that levels of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARG) are significantly higher in antimicrobial‐selected marine bacteria than in unselected bacteria from these sites. While ARG in tetracycline‐ and florfenicol‐selected bacteria from aquaculture and non‐aquaculture sites were equally frequent, there were significantly more plasmid‐mediated quinolone resistance genes per bacterium and significantly higher numbers of <italic>qnrB</italic> genes in quinolone‐selected bacteria from the aquaculture site. Quinolone‐resistant urinary <italic>E</italic><italic>scherichia coli</italic> from patients in the Chilean aquacultural region were significantly enriched for <italic>qnrB</italic> (including a novel <italic>qnrB</italic> gene), <italic>qnrS</italic>, <italic>qnrA</italic> and <italic>aac(6′)‐1b</italic>, compared with isolates from New York City. Sequences of <italic>qnrA1</italic>, <italic>qnrB1</italic> and <italic>qnrS1</italic> in quinolone‐resistant Chilean <italic>E</italic><italic>. coli</italic> and Chilean marine bacteria were identical, suggesting horizontal gene transfer between antimicrobial‐resistant marine bacteria and human pathogens.</p> </abstract>