Antimicrobials use and resistance on integrated poultry-fish farming systems in the Ayeyarwady Delta of Myanmar

Abstract

Antimicrobials are used to support livestock health and productivity, but might pose a risk for the development of antimicrobial resistance; in particular, when multiple livestock species are raised together in production systems. On integrated chicken-fish farms, chickens are raised over fish ponds and poultry faeces is excreted into the ponds. We investigated antimicrobial usage and the antimicrobial susceptibility of Escherichia coli cultured from poultry faeces on 301 integrated farms in Ayeyarwady Delta of Myanmar. Antimicrobials were used by 92.4% of farmers for chickens, but they were not applied to fish. The most common antimicrobials used were Octamix (amoxicillin and colistin sulfate) on 28.4%, enrofloxacin on 21.0% and amoxicillin on 16% of farms. Overall, 83.1% (152/183) of the E. coli were resistant to at least one antimicrobial. The highest level of resistance was to amoxicillin (54.6%), tetracycline (39.9%), sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (35.5%) and enrofloxacin (34.4%). Multidrug resistance was identified in 42.4% of isolates. In general, we found similar levels of antimicrobial resistance in non-users of antimicrobials as in users of antimicrobials for more commonly applied antimicrobials. Overall, antimicrobial resistance was lower in chickens on these integrated farms in Myanmar, compared to poultry farms in other countries of South East and East Asia.

Global colistin use: a review of the emergence of resistant Enterobacterales and the impact on their genetic basis

“…In 2017, the most common antimicrobial used in poultry-fish farms in Myanmar was Octamix (amoxicillin and colistin sulfate) in over 40% of poultry flocks and 6% of E. coli isolated from feces were resistant to colistin (Gibson et al . 2020 ).…”

Bacteria of Zoonotic Interest Identified on Edible Freshwater Fish Imported to Australia

“…Four of the antimicrobials selected for evaluation were from categories C1 (‘ sole, or one of limited available therapies, to treat serious bacterial infections in people ’) and C2 (‘ used to treat infections caused by bacteria possibly transmitted from non-human sources, or with resistance genes from non-human sources ’) and one was in the C2 category only. All antimicrobials selected are used in FF or have been identified contaminating farmed freshwater fish in published literature [ 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 ]. Antimicrobial disks used in this study were obtained from ThermoFisher.…”

High Occurrence of Multiple-Drug Resistance Mediated by Integron in Aeromonas Isolated from Fish-Livestock Integrated Farms

“…Fish-livestock integrated farming is a traditional practice in the countryside of South China and has been introduced into other Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Tailand, and India [1,2]. Farmers often own these aquaculture systems.…”