This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Antibiotics in swine feed may promote bacterial gene exchange
Allen HK. mBio. 2011;doi:10.1128/mBio.00260-11.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Researchers have found that antibiotics in swine feed stimulated gene exchange in the intestinal microbial community and could therefore lead to transfer of antibiotic-resistant genes, according to new findings published in mBio.
“Although antibiotics are a cost-effective tool for improving feed efficiency and preventing disease in agricultural animals, the full scope of their collateral effects is not understood,” according to Heather K. Allen, of the US Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Disease Center, and colleagues.
Metagenomics was used to examine the effects of two antibiotics — carbadox and ASP250 (chlortetracycline, sulfamethazine and penicillin) in feed. Researchers monitored the effect on swine intestinal microbial communities using 16S rRNA gene sequencing.
Results indicated that ASP250, but not carbadox, caused significant changes in both the bacteria and phages. The researchers also identified antibiotic-resistant genes in the viromes. “This suggests that in-feed antibiotics are contributing to phage-mediated gene transfer, potentially of antibiotic resistance genes, in the swine gut,” Allen and colleagues wrote in the study.
“This study advances our knowledge of the collateral effects of in-feed antibiotics at a time in which the widespread use of ‘growth-promoting’ antibiotics in agriculture is under scrutiny…Understanding the role of phages in gut microbial ecology is an essential component of the antibiotic resistance problem and of developing potential mitigation strategies,” according to the researchers.
 |
Follow InfectiousDiseaseNews.com on Twitter. |