Undomesticated Animals as a Reservoir of Multidrug-ResistantEnterococcusin Eastern Poland

Abstract

ABSTRACT:To assess implications for public health we compared the resistance of Enterococcus spp. strains to antibacterial drugs in wild and exotic animals with strains originating in domesticated animals and characterized correlations between Enterococcus species, the source of the isolate, and the degree of resistance to selected antibiotics. All strains, regardless of source, were susceptible to blactams, gentamicin, linezolid, and teicoplanin; the highest resistance was to kanamycin, quinupristin, and rifampicin. Thirteen strains from undomesticated animals were resistant to vancomycin, and one strain, from a fox, was resistant to streptomycin (high-dose). Multidrug-resistant strains accounted for 46% of the strains from wild animals and 59% of the strains from an exotic animal (the Russian tortoise; Testudo horsfieldii). Despite the relatively low level of resistance in the strains isolated from wild and exotic animals, the large number of intermediately susceptible strains in these groups is an indication of the evolutionary character of the development of resistance, suggesting that these animals may be potential reservoirs of Enterococcus strains resistant to a wide panel of currently used antibiotics.

Prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Enterococcus strains isolated from poultry

“…Nowakiewicz et al (2014) noted that, besides poultry, a small number of E. hirae, E. durans and E. mundtii can also be isolated from the gastrointestinal tract of foxes (Vulpes vulpes), more frequently than from other domestic animals tested. Some enterococci are considered to be associated with a particular host species.…”

A Preliminary Study: Antibiotic Resistance Patterns of Escherichia coli and Enterococcus Species from Wildlife Species Subjected to Supplementary Feeding on Various South African Farms

“…The insignificant differences in resistance observed between the supplementary fed and non-supplementary fed wildlife Enterococcus isolates towards penicillin can be attributed to low resistance levels in both groups, leading to little variance in the data. Nowakiewicz et al [39] also detected no resistance to penicillin by Enterococcus from wild animals.…”

“…In South Africa, it is standard practice for farmers to either mix their own feed on-farm or to buy a mixed feed or concentrate from a commercial animal feed manufacturing company. Irrespective of who mixes the feed, a commercial vitamin and mineral premix is added and it is not uncommon for this premix to contain antibiotic compounds [39]. Unfortunately, this information was not disclosed to the researchers by the farmers/ managers and therefore not analysed in this study.…”

“…This farm was once a sheep farm about twenty to thirty years ago. Penicillins are the most widely used antibiotic class in sheep farming in the European Union [39]. Data on the types of antibiotics used in livestock production in South Africa are scare [8].…”

“…This farm was once a sheep farm and thus vancomycin resistant bacteria could have developed during the sheep farming period and could have remained in the soil and carried over to the grazing buffalo, as previously discussed for the E. coli isolates from this same farm. Nowakiewicz et al [39] found that over half of the Enterococcus isolates from wild animals were resistant to vancomycin, indicating the possibility of contact between different ecosystems.…”