Issue: July 2015
June 01, 2015
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Phages transferring antimicrobial resistance present in frozen chicken

Issue: July 2015
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Phages capable of transferring antimicrobial-resistant genes to other pathogens were detected among frozen chicken meat purchased from Austrian food vendors, according to recently published data.

“Our results suggest that transduction of antimicrobial resistance is not, as has been assumed to date, a rare event but is rather more common for certain resistance elements,” the researchers wrote in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. “Phages able to transfer antimicrobial resistance are rather diverse, ranging from specific ones to those with a broad-host-range and the process is not dependent on homologous recombination. This study raises the question about new strategies in combating transfer of antimicrobial resistance in the food environment.”

Researchers examined 50 samples of frozen chicken meat purchased from food vendors in Austria for the presence of phages capable of transferring antibiotic resistance. Phages were isolated from these samples, allowed to transduce and analyzed using PCR for genes resistant to five antimicrobials.

Phages able to transduce antimicrobial resistance were found in 44% of the chicken samples. Of the 243 isolated phages, 24.7% were able to transduce at least one of the tested antimicrobial resistances into Escherichia coli. Resistance to kanamycin occurred most frequently among these phages (n = 44), and a relationship between the presence of these phages and E. coli isolates resistant to the antibiotic also was observed (P = .01).

“This mechanism could also be important in clinical settings, where multiresistant pathogens are on the rise,” researcher Friederike Hilbert, DVM, of the Institute of Meat Hygiene at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, said in a press release “We assume that phages acquire resistance genes from already resistant bacteria and then transfer those genes to other bacteria. Our results could explain why resistances spread so rapidly among bacteria.” - by Dave Muoio

Disclosure: Infectious Disease News was unable to determine relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.