Horizontal Gene Transfer,Fitness Costs and Mobility Shape the Spread of Antibiotic Resistance Genes into Experimental Populations of Acinetobacter Baylyi

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is important for microbial evolution, but how evolutionary forces shape the frequencies of horizontally transferred genetic variants in the absence of strong selection remains an open question. In this study, we evolve laboratory populations of Acinetobacter baylyi (ADP1) with HGT from two clinically relevant strains of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (AB5075 and A9844). We find that DNA can cross the species barrier, even without strong selection, and despite substantial DNA sequence divergence between the two species. Our results confirm previous findings that HGT can drive the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) without selection for that antibiotic, but not for all of the resistance genes present in the donor genome. We quantify the costs and benefits of horizontally transferred variants and use whole population sequencing to track the spread of ARGs from HGT donors into antibiotic-sensitive recipients. We find that even though most ARGs are taken up by populations of A. baylyi, the long-term fate of an individual gene depends both on its fitness cost and on the type of genetic element that carries the gene. Interestingly, we also found that an integron, but not its host plasmid, is able to spread in A. baylyi populations despite its strong deleterious effect. Altogether, our results show how HGT provides an evolutionary advantage to evolving populations by facilitating the spread of non-selected genetic variation including costly ARGs.     

Artificial sweeteners stimulate horizontal transfer of extracellular antibiotic resistance genes through natural transformation

Antimicrobial resistance has emerged as a global threat to human health. Natural transformation is an important pathway for horizontal gene transfer, which facilitates the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) among bacteria. Although it is suspected that artificial sweeteners could exert antimicrobial effects, little is known whether artificial sweeteners would also affect horizontal transfer of ARGs via transformation. Here we demonstrate that four commonly used artificial sweeteners (saccharin, sucralose, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium) promote transfer of ARGs via natural transformation in Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1, a model organism for studying competence and transformation. Such phenomenon was also found in a Gram-positive human pathogen Bacillus subtilis and mice faecal microbiome. We reveal that exposure to these sweeteners increases cell envelope permeability and results in an upregulation of genes encoding DNA uptake and translocation (Com) machinery. In addition, we find that artificial sweeteners induce an increase in plasmid persistence in transformants. We propose a mathematical model established to predict the long-term effects on transformation dynamics under exposure to these sweeteners. Collectively, our findings offer insights into natural transformation promoted by artificial sweeteners and highlight the need to evaluate these environmental contaminants for their antibiotic-like side effects.Subject terms: Antibiotics, Public health     

Horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes in a membrane bioreactor

Growing attention has been paid to the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in wastewater microbial communities. The application of membrane bioreactors (MBRs) in wastewater treatment is becoming increasingly widespread. We hypothesized that the transfer of ARGs among bacteria could occur in MBRs, which combine a high density of bacterial cells, biofilms, and antibiotic resistance bacteria or ARGs. In this study, the transfer discipline and dissemination of the RP4 plasmid in MBRs were investigated by the counting plate method, the MIDI microorganism identification system, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) techniques. The results showed that the average transfer frequency of the RP4 plasmid from the donor strain to cultivable bacteria in activated sludge was 2.76 × 10⁻⁵ per recipient, which was greater than the transfer frequency in wastewater and bacterial sludge reported previously. In addition, many bacterial species in the activated sludge had received RP4 by horizontal transfer, while the genera of Shewanella spp., Photobacterium spp., Pseudomonas spp., Proteus spp., and Vibrio spp. were more likely to acquire this plasmid. Interestingly, the abundance of the RP4 plasmid in total DNA remained at high levels and relatively stable at 10⁴ copies/mg of biosolids, suggesting that ARGs were transferred from donor strains to activated sludge bacteria in our study. Thus, the presence of ARGs in sewage sludge poses a potential health threat.     

Metagenomic analysis reveals the prevalence and persistence of antibiotic- and heavy metal-resistance genes in wastewater treatment plant

The increased antibiotic resistance among microorganisms has resulted into growing interest for investigating the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) as they are reported to be the major source in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and heavy metal resistance genes (HMRGs) in the environment. In this study, we investigated the prevalence and persistence of ARGs and HMRGs as well as bacterial diversity and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in influent and effluent at the WWTP in Gwangju, South Korea, using high-throughput sequencing based metagenomic approach. A good number of broad-spectrum of resistance genes (both ARG and HMRG) were prevalent and likely persistent, although large portion of them were successfully removed at the wastewater treatment process. The relative abundance of ARGs and MGEs was higher in effluent as compared to that of influent. Our results suggest that the resistance genes with high abundance and bacteria harbouring ARGs and MGEs are likely to persist more through the treatment process. On analyzing the microbial community, the phylum Proteobacteria, especially potentially pathogenic species belonging to the genus Acinetobacter, dominated in WWTP. Overall, our study demonstrates that many ARGs and HMRGs may persist the treatment processes in WWTPs and their association to MGEs may contribute to the dissemination of resistance genes among microorganisms in the environment.     

Population diversity in model potable water biofilms receiving chlorine or chloramine residual

Abstract

Most water utilities use chlorine or chloramine to produce potable water. These disinfecting agents react with water to produce residual oxidants within a water distribution system (WDS) to control bacterial growth. While monochloramine is considered more stable than chlorine, little is known about the effect it has on WDS biofilms. Community structure of 10-week old WDS biofilms exposed to disinfectants was assessed after developing model biofilms from unamended distribution water. Four biofilm types were developed on polycarbonate slides within annular reactors while receiving chlorine, chloramine, or inactivated disinfectant residual. Eubacteria were identified through 16S rDNA sequence analysis. The model WDS biofilm exposed to chloramine mainly contained Mycobacterium and Dechloromonas sequences, while a variety of alpha- and additional beta-proteobacteria dominated the 16S rDNA clone libraries in the other three biofilms. Additionally, bacterial clones distantly related to Legionella were found in one of the biofilms receiving water with inactivated chlorine residual. The biofilm reactor receiving chloraminated water required increasing amounts of disinfectant after 2 weeks to maintain chlorine residual. In contrast, free chlorine residual remained steady in the reactor that received chlorinated water. The differences in bacterial populations of potable water biofilms suggest that disinfecting agents can influence biofilm development. These results also suggest that biofilm communities in distribution systems are capable of changing in response to disinfection practices.     

Population diversity in model potable water biofilms receiving chlorine or chloramine residual

Most water utilities use chlorine or chloramine to produce potable water. These disinfecting agents react with water to produce residual oxidants within a water distribution system (WDS) to control bacterial growth. While monochloramine is considered more stable than chlorine, little is known about the effect it has on WDS biofilms. Community structure of 10-week old WDS biofilms exposed to disinfectants was assessed after developing model biofilms from unamended distribution water. Four biofilm types were developed on polycarbonate slides within annular reactors while receiving chlorine, chloramine, or inactivated disinfectant residual. Eubacteria were identified through 16S rDNA sequence analysis. The model WDS biofilm exposed to chloramine mainly contained Mycobacterium and Dechloromonas sequences, while a variety of alpha- and additional beta-proteobacteria dominated the 16S rDNA clone libraries in the other three biofilms. Additionally, bacterial clones distantly related to Legionella were found in one of the biofilms receiving water with inactivated chlorine residual. The biofilm reactor receiving chloraminated water required increasing amounts of disinfectant after 2 weeks to maintain chlorine residual. In contrast, free chlorine residual remained steady in the reactor that received chlorinated water. The differences in bacterial populations of potable water biofilms suggest that disinfecting agents can influence biofilm development. These results also suggest that biofilm communities in distribution systems are capable of changing in response to disinfection practices.     

Aquatic animals promote antibiotic resistance gene dissemination in water via conjugation: Role of different regions within the zebra fish intestinal tract,and impact on fish intestinal microbiota

The aqueous environment is one of many reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Fish, as important aquatic animals which possess ideal intestinal niches for bacteria to grow and multiply, may ingest antibiotic resistance bacteria from aqueous environment. The fish gut would be a suitable environment for conjugal gene transfer including those encoding antibiotic resistance. However, little is known in relation to the impact of ingested ARGs or antibiotic resistance bacteria (ARB) on gut microbiota. Here, we applied the cultivation method, qPCR, nuclear molecular genetic marker and 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing technologies to develop a plasmid‐mediated ARG transfer model of zebrafish. Furthermore, we aimed to investigate the dissemination of ARGs in microbial communities of zebrafish guts after donors carrying self‐transferring plasmids that encode ARGs were introduced in aquaria. On average, 15% of faecal bacteria obtained ARGs through RP4‐mediated conjugal transfer. The hindgut was the most important intestinal region supporting ARG dissemination, with concentrations of donor and transconjugant cells almost 25 times higher than those of other intestinal segments. Furthermore, in the hindgut where conjugal transfer occurred most actively, there was remarkable upregulation of the mRNA expression of the RP4 plasmid regulatory genes, trbBp and trfAp. Exogenous bacteria seem to alter bacterial communities by increasing Escherichia and Bacteroides species, while decreasing Aeromonas compared with control groups. We identified the composition of transconjugants and abundance of both cultivable and uncultivable bacteria (the latter accounted for 90.4%–97.2% of total transconjugants). Our study suggests that aquatic animal guts contribute to the spread of ARGs in water environments.     

Characteristics of ARG-carrying plasmidome in the cultivable microbial community from wastewater treatment system under high oxytetracycline concentration

Studies on antibiotic production wastewater have shown that even a single antibiotic can select for multidrug resistant bacteria in aquatic environments. It is speculated that plasmids are an important mechanism of multidrug resistance (MDR) under high concentrations of antibiotics. Herein, two metagenomic libraries were constructed with plasmid DNA extracted from cultivable microbial communities in a biological wastewater treatment reactor supplemented with 0 (CONTROL) or 25 mg/L of oxytetracycline (OTC-25). The OTC-25 plasmidome reads were assigned to 72 antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) conferring resistance to 13 types of antibiotics. Dominant ARGs, encoding resistance to tetracycline, aminoglycoside, sulfonamide, and multidrug resistance genes, were enriched in the plasmidome under 25 mg/L of oxytetracycline. Furthermore, 17 contiguous multiple-ARG carrying contigs (carrying ≥ 2 ARGs) were discovered in the OTC-25 plasmidome, whereas only nine were found in the CONTROL. Mapping of the OTC-25 plasmidome reads to completely sequenced plasmids revealed that the conjugative IncU resistance plasmid pFBAOT6 of Aeromonas caviae, carrying multidrug resistance transporter (pecM), tetracycline resistance genes (tetA, tetR), and transposase genes, might be a potential prevalent resistant plasmid in the OTC-25 plasmidome. Additionally, two novel resistant plasmids (containing contig C301682 carrying multidrug resistant operon mexCD-oprJ and contig C301632 carrying the tet36 and transposases genes) might also be potential prevalent resistant plasmids in the OTC-25 plasmidome. This study will be helpful to better understand the role of plasmids in the development of MDR in water environments under high antibiotic concentrations.

     

Abundance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Bacteriophage following Soil Fertilization with Dairy Manure or Municipal Biosolids,and Evidence for Potential Transduction

Animal manures and municipal biosolids recycled onto crop production land carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can influence the antibiotic resistome of agricultural soils, but little is known about the contribution of bacteriophage to the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in this context. In this work, we quantified a set of ARGs in the bacterial and bacteriophage fractions of agricultural soil by quantitative PCR. All tested ARGs were present in both the bacterial and phage fractions. We demonstrate that fertilization of soil with dairy manure or human biosolids increases ARG abundance in the bacterial fraction but not the bacteriophage fraction and further show that pretreatment of dairy manure can impact ARG abundance in the bacterial fraction. Finally, we show that purified bacteriophage can confer increased antibiotic resistance to soil bacteria when combined with selective pressure. The results indicate that soilborne bacteriophage represents a substantial reservoir of antibiotic resistance and that bacteriophage could play a significant role in the horizontal transfer of resistance genes in the context of an agricultural soil microbiome. Overall, our work reinforces the advisability of composting or digesting fecal material prior to field application and suggests that application of some antibiotics at subclinical concentrations can promote bacteriophage-mediated horizontal transfer of ARGs in agricultural soil microbiomes.     

Effect of pH, application technique, and chlorine-to-nitrogen ratio on disinfectant activity of inorganic chloramines with pure culture bacteria.

The influence of pH, application technique, and chlorine-to-nitrogen weight ratio on the bactericidal activity of inorganic chloramine compounds was determined with stock and environmental strains of Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Enterobacter cloacae. The rate of inactivation increased from 1.5 to 2 times as the chlorine-to-nitrogen weight ratio was adjusted from 2:1 to 5:1, 5 to 6 times as the pH was decreased from 8 to 6, and 5 to 6 times as the concentration was increased from 1 to 5 mg/liter. Separate additions of free chlorine and ammonia (concurrent addition and preammoniation) into seeded water at or below pH 7.5 resulted in killing comparable to that observed with free chlorine (99% inactivation in less than 20 s). At pH 8, inactivation by separate additions was considerably slower and was comparable to that by prereacted chloramine compounds (99% inactivation in 25 to 26 min). Determination of the effectiveness of inorganic chloramine compounds as primary disinfectants for drinking water must consider the method of application, pH and concentrations of chlorine and ammonia.     

Bacterial diversity and the antimicrobial resistome in the southwestern highlands of Saudi Arabia

Soil is a reservoir of microbial diversity and the most supportive habitat for acquiring and transmitting antimicrobial resistance. Resistance transfer usually occurs from animal to soil and vice versa, and it may ultimately appear in clinical pathogens. In this study, the southwestern highlands of Saudi Arabia were studied to assess the bacterial diversity and antimicrobial resistance that could be affected by the continuous development of tourism in the region. Such effects could have a long-lasting impact on the local environment and community. Culture-dependent, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and shotgun sequencing-based metagenomic approaches were used to evaluate the diversity, functional capabilities, and antimicrobial resistance of bacteria isolated from collected soil samples. Bacterial communities in the southwestern highlands were mainly composed of Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria. A total of 102 antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and variants were identified in the soil microbiota and were mainly associated with multidrug resistance, followed by macrolide, tetracycline, glycopeptide, bacitracin, and beta-lactam antibiotic resistance. The mechanisms of resistance included efflux, antibiotic target alteration, and antibiotic inactivation. qPCR confirmed the detection of 18 clinically important ARGs. In addition, half of the 49 identified isolates were phenotypically resistant to at least one of the 15 antibiotics tested. Overall, ARGs and indicator genes of anthropogenic activities (human-mitochondrial [hmt] gene and integron-integrase [int1]) were found in relatively lower abundance. Along with a high diversity of bacterial communities, variation was observed in the relative abundance of bacterial taxa among sampling sites in the southwestern highlands of Saudi Arabia.     

The Selection of Recombinant Binary Plasmids Generated by Gateway® LR Cloning in the Escherichia coli Strain C2110

Gateway^® cloning is widely used in molecular biology laboratories. Various binary vectors used for Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation have been modified as destination vectors that are convenient for the sub-cloning of targeted genes from Entry plasmids. However, when the destination and Entry plasmids have the same antibiotic resistance genes for bacterial selection, the non-recombinant Entry plasmid in the LR reaction mixture can compete with the recombinant destination plasmid during bacterial transformation and selection. Methods for the effective selection of recombinant destination plasmids are highly desirable. In this study, we demonstrated that Escherichia coli strain C2110, which is defective in DNA polymerase I (pAL1), could be used to select a recombinant binary destination plasmid with a RK2 replication origin, while the replication of the Entry plasmid with a ColE1 replication origin was inhibited. Plasmid DNA isolated from C2110 by a traditional mini-prep kit was used for restriction enzyme digestion, DNA sequencing, and Arabidopsis protoplast transfection. The binary plasmid in C2110 was also efficiently mobilized into Agrobacterium tumefaciens via the tri-parental conjugation method.     

Conjugation is necessary for a bacterial plasmid to survive under protozoan predation

Horizontal gene transfer by conjugative plasmids plays a critical role in the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Interactions between bacteria and other organisms can affect the persistence and spread of conjugative plasmids. Here we show that protozoan predation increased the persistence and spread of the antibiotic resistance plasmid RP4 in populations of the opportunist bacterial pathogen Serratia marcescens. A conjugation-defective mutant plasmid was unable to survive under predation, suggesting that conjugative transfer is required for plasmid persistence under the realistic condition of predation. These results indicate that multi-trophic interactions can affect the maintenance of conjugative plasmids with implications for bacterial evolution and the spread of antibiotic resistance genes.     

Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Bacterial Community Composition in a River Influenced by a Wastewater Treatment Plant

Antibiotic resistance represents a global health problem, requiring better understanding of the ecology of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), their selection and their spread in the environment. Antibiotics are constantly released to the environment through wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents. We investigated, therefore, the effect of these discharges on the prevalence of ARGs and bacterial community composition in biofilm and sediment samples of a receiving river. We used culture-independent approaches such as quantitative PCR to determine the prevalence of eleven ARGs and 16S rRNA gene-based pyrosequencing to examine the composition of bacterial communities. Concentration of antibiotics in WWTP influent and effluent were also determined. ARGs such as qnrS, bla _TEM, bla _CTX-M, bla _SHV, erm(B), sul(I), sul(II), tet(O) and tet(W) were detected in all biofilm and sediment samples analyzed. Moreover, we observed a significant increase in the relative abundance of ARGs in biofilm samples collected downstream of the WWTP discharge. We also found significant differences with respect to community structure and composition between upstream and downstream samples. Therefore, our results indicate that WWTP discharges may contribute to the spread of ARGs into the environment and may also impact on the bacterial communities of the receiving river.     

Soil plastispheres as hotspots of antibiotic resistance genes and potential pathogens

In the Anthropocene, increasing pervasive plastic pollution is creating a new environmental compartment, the plastisphere. How the plastisphere affects microbial communities and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) is an issue of global concern. Although this has been studied in aquatic ecosystems, our understanding of plastisphere microbiota in soil ecosystems remains poor. Here, we investigated plastisphere microbiota and ARGs of four types of microplastics (MPs) from diverse soil environments, and revealed effects of manure, temperature, and moisture on them. Our results showed that the MPs select for microbial communities in the plastisphere, and that these plastisphere communities are involved in diverse metabolic pathways, indicating that they could drive diverse ecological processes in the soil ecosystem. The relationship within plastisphere bacterial zero-radius operational taxonomic units (zOTUs) was predominantly positive, and neutral processes appeared to dominate community assembly. However, deterministic processes were more important in explaining the variance in ARGs in plastispheres. A range of potential pathogens and ARGs were detected in the plastisphere, which were enriched compared to the soil but varied across MPs and soil types. We further found that the addition of manure and elevation of soil temperature and moisture all enhance ARGs in plastispheres, and potential pathogens increase with soil moisture. These results suggested that plastispheres are habitats in which an increased potential pathogen abundance is spatially co-located with an increased abundance of ARGs under global change. Our findings provided new insights into the community ecology of the microbiome and antibiotic resistome of the soil plastisphere.Subject terms: Microbial ecology, Environmental sciences     

Antibiotic resistance genes in water environment

The use of antibiotics may accelerate the development of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and bacteria which shade health risks to humans and animals. The emerging of ARGs in the water environment is becoming an increasing worldwide concern. Hundreds of various ARGs encoding resistance to a broad range of antibiotics have been found in microorganisms distributed not only in hospital wastewaters and animal production wastewaters, but also in sewage, wastewater treatment plants, surface water, groundwater, and even in drinking water. This review summarizes recently published information on the types, distributions, and horizontal transfer of ARGs in various aquatic environments, as well as the molecular methods used to detect environmental ARGs, including specific and multiplex PCR (polymerase chain reaction), real-time PCR, DNA sequencing, and hybridization based techniques.     

Abundances of Tetracycline,Sulphonamide and Beta-Lactam Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Conventional Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) with Different Waste Load

Antibiotics and antibiotic resistant bacteria enter wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), an environment where resistance genes can potentially spread and exchange between microbes. Several antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were quantified using qPCR in three WWTPs of decreasing capacity located in Helsinki, Tallinn, and Tartu, respectively: sulphonamide resistance genes (sul1 and sul2), tetracycline resistance genes (tetM and tetC), and resistance genes for extended spectrum beta-lactams (bla_oxa-58, bla_shv-34, and bla_ctx-m-32). To avoid inconsistencies among qPCR assays we normalised the ARG abundances with 16S rRNA gene abundances while assessing if the respective genes increased or decreased during treatment. ARGs were detected in most samples; sul1, sul2, and tetM were detected in all samples. Statistically significant differences (adjusted p<0.01) between the inflow and effluent were detected in only four cases. Effluent values for bla_oxa-58 and tetC decreased in the two larger plants while tetM decreased in the medium-sized plant. Only bla_shv-34 increased in the effluent from the medium-sized plant. In all other cases the purification process caused no significant change in the relative abundance of resistance genes, while the raw abundances fell by several orders of magnitude. Standard water quality variables (biological oxygen demand, total phosphorus and nitrogen, etc.) were weakly related or unrelated to the relative abundance of resistance genes. Based on our results we conclude that there is neither considerable enrichment nor purification of antibiotic resistance genes in studied conventional WWTPs.     

抗生素抗性基因在环境中的传播扩散及抗性研究方法

抗生素在医药、畜牧和水产养殖业的大量使用造成了环境中抗性耐药菌和抗性基因日益增加,抗生素抗性基因作为一种新型环境污染物引起人们的广泛关注.本文综述了近年来国内外有关抗生素抗性基因的研究进展,其在水、土壤、空气等环境介质中和动,植物体内的传播扩散,以及开展环境中抗生素抗性基因研究的必要性,重点介绍了有关抗生素抗性（包括抗性细菌和抗性基因）的研究方法,指出抗性基因研究中存在的问题,并对未来的相关研究进行了展望.     

Occurrence of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Bacterial Markers in a Tropical River Receiving Hospital and Urban Wastewaters

The occurrence of emerging biological contaminants including antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and Faecal Indicator Bacteria (FIB) is still little investigated in developing countries under tropical conditions. In this study, the total bacterial load, the abundance of FIB (E. coli and Enterococcus spp. (ENT)), Pseudomonas spp. and ARGs (bla_TEM, bla_CTX-M, bla_SHV, bla_NDM and aadA) were quantified using quantitative PCR in the total DNA extracted from the sediments recovered from hospital outlet pipes (HOP) and the Cauvery River Basin (CRB), Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. The abundance of bacterial marker genes were 120, 104 and 89 fold higher for the E. coli, Enterococcus spp. and Pseudomonas spp., respectively at HOP when compared with CRB. The ARGs aadA and bla_TEM were most frequently detected in higher concentration than other ARGs at all the sampling sites. The ARGs bla_SHV and bla_NDM were identified in CRB sediments contaminated by hospital and urban wastewaters. The ARGs abundance strongly correlated (r ≥ 0.36, p < 0.05, n = 45) with total bacterial load and E. coli in the sediments, indicating a common origin and extant source of contamination. Tropical aquatic ecosystems receiving wastewaters can act as reservoir of ARGs, which could potentially be transferred to susceptible bacterial pathogens at these sites.     

食品动物养殖环境中细菌耐药性研究进展

抗生素耐药性被世界卫生组织认为是21世纪人类面临的最大的公共卫生安全问题之一。近年来,抗生素耐药基因作为一种新型污染物而受到广泛关注。养殖场现已成为耐药基因的一个重要储库,耐药菌及耐药基因随着动物排泄物进入环境,从而加速了耐药基因在环境中的传播。畜禽养殖环境中耐药基因和耐药菌可能经食物链、空气等途径传至人类,给人类健康带来巨大威胁。文中结合最新文献,主要介绍了动物养殖场抗菌药物耐药菌和耐药基因的分布特点、耐药基因的持留和传播扩散、研究方法等方面的研究进展,为食品动物养殖环境的抗菌药物耐药性风险评估提供一定支持。