Circulation of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in our Environment

Bacteria are everywhere - on us, within us, on and within animals and in our environments. Whilst most bacteria are harmless or in fact beneficial (like those in your gut), some can be harmful if given the opportunity. Antibiotic resistance is becoming an ever-increasing problem when treating bacterial infections in humans and animals, which makes it an important topic to study.

Jordan Sealey, a postgraduate student working with the team on the One Health Selection and Transmission of Antimicrobial Resistance study (OH-STAR; http://www.bristol.ac.uk/vetscience/research/projects/ohstar/) investigated how antibiotic resistance genes may be shared between humans, animals and the environment. The OH-STAR study focussed on E. coli, a bacterium carried by all animals, including humans, and looked at which strains of E. coli are found on dairy farms, which antibiotic resistance genes these E. coli  carried and how these may be related to strains and genes found in humans.

To build on this work, Jordan focused in detail on a smaller geographical area in mid-Somerset and looked at a specific type of resistance gene. She collected faecal samples from dogs in this area with the aim of finding out if resistance genes found on dairy farms were also present in dog faeces.

This project was funded by the Medical Research Foundation’s National PhD training Programme in Antimicrobial Resistance Research. and was supervised by Professors Matthew Avison and Kristen Reyher.