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Contacts
- Dr Nicola Williams
- Professor Malcolm Bennett
- Lutfi AlTunesi
Antibiotic resistance in wildlife
Antibiotic resistance is an increasingly important problem in farm animal and human medicine. The increased prevalence of resistance is assumed to be largely due to selection through the use of antibiotics.
There is considerable ignorance, however, regarding the original sources of both the resistant strains and the genetic elements which encode resistance, and the dynamics and persistence of resistance under different antibiotic-application regimens.
Although several groups have produced valuable theoretical models to help understand the ecology of antibiotic resistance, there is an urgent need for detailed, longitudinal, empirical studies, especially of commensal bacteria (rather than pathogens) and in natural populations.
This project is investigating the role of wildlife as sources of resistance for domestic animals (and man), and the likely sources and mechanisms of persistence of antibiotic resistance in wildlife in the absence of obvious exposure to antibiotics.
We have recently demonstrated high prevalences of antibiotic resistance in the normal enteric bacterial flora of woodland populations of wild rodents that have never been treated with antibiotics.
This raises several questions, concerning the ability of wild rodents to act as sources (or reservoirs) of antibiotic resistance for farm animals and humans, and the dynamics and mechanisms of persistence of antibiotic resistance generally.
This project explores these issues through:
- Cross sectional and longitudinal studies of wild rodent populations to determine the epidemiology of antibiotic resistance. This includes a detailed examination of temporal patterns and the relationship between resistance and variables such as age and sex of the rodent host.
- Investigation of spatial patterns of antibiotic resistance in wild animals, in-contact farm animals, humans and the environment.
- Combining molecular studies with information on antibiotic use to examine the origin and mechanisms of resistance and its transferability to other bacteria and other mammalian hosts.
- Study of the environment, diet, and seasonal variation in the normal enteric flora of wild rodents to investigate how antibiotic resistance persists in the absence of antibiotic therapy.
See also
- Antibiotic resistance in companion animals
- MRSA in non-human animals
Related pulications
Gilliver M, Bennett M, Begon M, Feore SM & Hart CA. 1999 Antibiotic resistance found in wild rodents. Nature 401 233-234.
Gilliver MA, Bennett M, Begon M, Hazel SM, Hart CA 2001 Antibiotic resistance - How wild are wild mammals? Reply. Nature 409 38-38.
Mallon DJP, Corkill JE, Hazel SM, Wilson JS, French NP, Bennett M and Hart CA. 2002 Excretion of vancomycin-resistant enterococci by wild mammals. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 8 636-638.
