Bacteriophages isolated from XXXX meat and the horizontal transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes.

@entity1 @entity7913 @entity2755 @entity1573 @entity869 @entity803 @entity526
UNASSIGNED: Antimicrobial resistance in microbes poses a global and increasing threat to public health. The horizontal transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes was thought to be due largely to conjugative plasmids or transposons with only a minor part played by transduction through bacteriophages. However, whole genome sequencing has recently shown that the latter mechanism could be highly important in the exchange of antimicrobial resistance between microorganisms and environments. The transfer of antimicrobial resistance by phages could underlie the origin of resistant bacteria found in food. We show that @entity1573 meat carries a number of phages capable of transferring antimicrobial resistance. Of 243 phages randomly isolated from @entity1573 meat, about a quarter (24.7%) were able to transduce one or more of the five antimicrobial resistances tested into @entity526 ATCC 13706 (DSM 12242). Resistance to @entity7913 was transduced most often, followed by that to @entity2755 , with four phages transducing @entity803 resistance and three doing so for resistance to @entity869 . Phages able to transduce antimicrobial resistance were isolated from 44% of the samples of @entity1573 we tested. A statistically significant (P=0.01) relationship between the presence of phages transducing @entity7913 resistance and @entity526 isolates resistant to this antibiotic suggests that transduction may be an important mechanism for transferring @entity7913 resistance to @entity526 . It appears that transduction of certain antimicrobial resistances e.g. @entity7913 is not only widely distributed in @entity526 found on meat but could represent a major mechanism for resistance transfer. The result is of high importance for animal and @entity1 health.
