Study on Bacteria Isolates and Antimicrobial Resistance in Wildlife in Sicily, Southern Italy

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Abstract

Wild environments and wildlife can be reservoirs of pathogens and antibiotic resistance. Various studies have reported the presence of zoonotic bacteria, resistant strains, and genetic elements that determine antibiotic resistance in wild animals, especially near urban centers or agricultural and zootechnical activities. The purpose of this study was the analysis, by cultural and molecular methods, of bacteria isolated from wild animals in Sicily, Italy, regarding their susceptibility profile to antibiotics and the presence of antibiotic resistance genes. Bacteriological analyses were conducted on 368 wild animals, leading to the isolation of 222 bacterial strains identified by biochemical tests and 16S rRNA sequencing. The most isolated species was Escherichia coli, followed by Clostridium perfringens and Citrobacter freundii. Antibiograms and the determination of resistance genes showed a reduced spread of bacteria carrying antibiotic resistance among wild animals in Sicily. However, since several wild animals are becoming increasingly close to residential areas, it is important to monitor their health status and to perform microbiological analyses following a One Health approach.

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Using the class 1 integron-integrase gene as a proxy for anthropogenic pollution

Michael R Gillings, William Gaze, Amy Pruden … (2014)

Around all human activity, there are zones of pollution with pesticides, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, personal care products and the microorganisms associated with human waste streams and agriculture. This diversity of pollutants, whose concentration varies spatially and temporally, is a major challenge for monitoring. Here, we suggest that the relative abundance of the clinical class 1 integron-integrase gene, intI1, is a good proxy for pollution because: (1) intI1 is linked to genes conferring resistance to antibiotics, disinfectants and heavy metals; (2) it is found in a wide variety of pathogenic and nonpathogenic bacteria; (3) its abundance can change rapidly because its host cells can have rapid generation times and it can move between bacteria by horizontal gene transfer; and (4) a single DNA sequence variant of intI1 is now found on a wide diversity of xenogenetic elements, these being complex mosaic DNA elements fixed through the agency of human selection. Here we review the literature examining the relationship between anthropogenic impacts and the abundance of intI1, and outline an approach by which intI1 could serve as a proxy for anthropogenic pollution.

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Integrons: agents of bacterial evolution.

Didier Mazel (2006)

Integrons are assembly platforms - DNA elements that acquire open reading frames embedded in exogenous gene cassettes and convert them to functional genes by ensuring their correct expression. They were first identified by virtue of their important role in the spread of antibiotic-resistance genes. More recently, our understanding of their importance in bacterial genome evolution has broadened with the discovery of larger integron structures, termed superintegrons. These DNA elements contain hundreds of accessory genes and constitute a significant fraction of the genomes of many bacterial species. Here, the basic biology of integrons and superintegrons, their evolutionary history and the evidence for the existence of a novel recombination pathway is reviewed.

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Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms in Bacteria: Relationships Between Resistance Determinants of Antibiotic Producers, Environmental Bacteria, and Clinical Pathogens

Elizabeth Peterson, Parjit Kaur (2018)

Emergence of antibiotic resistant pathogenic bacteria poses a serious public health challenge worldwide. However, antibiotic resistance genes are not confined to the clinic; instead they are widely prevalent in different bacterial populations in the environment. Therefore, to understand development of antibiotic resistance in pathogens, we need to consider important reservoirs of resistance genes, which may include determinants that confer self-resistance in antibiotic producing soil bacteria and genes encoding intrinsic resistance mechanisms present in all or most non-producer environmental bacteria. While the presence of resistance determinants in soil and environmental bacteria does not pose a threat to human health, their mobilization to new hosts and their expression under different contexts, for example their transfer to plasmids and integrons in pathogenic bacteria, can translate into a problem of huge proportions, as discussed in this review. Selective pressure brought about by human activities further results in enrichment of such determinants in bacterial populations. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand distribution of resistance determinants in bacterial populations, elucidate resistance mechanisms, and determine environmental factors that promote their dissemination. This comprehensive review describes the major known self-resistance mechanisms found in producer soil bacteria of the genus Streptomyces and explores the relationships between resistance determinants found in producer soil bacteria, non-producer environmental bacteria, and clinical isolates. Specific examples highlighting potential pathways by which pathogenic clinical isolates might acquire these resistance determinants from soil and environmental bacteria are also discussed. Overall, this article provides a conceptual framework for understanding the complexity of the problem of emergence of antibiotic resistance in the clinic. Availability of such knowledge will allow researchers to build models for dissemination of resistance genes and for developing interventions to prevent recruitment of additional or novel genes into pathogens.

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Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Microorganisms

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Microorganisms

Journal ID (publisher-id): microorganisms

Title: Microorganisms

Publisher: MDPI

ISSN (Electronic): 2076-2607

Publication date (Electronic): 19 January 2021

Publication date Collection: January 2021

Volume: 9

Issue: 1

Electronic Location Identifier: 203

Affiliations

[1 ]Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sicilia “A. Mirri”, Via Gino Marinuzzi n. 3, 90129 Palermo, Italy; deliagamb@ 123456gmail.com (D.G.); maria.vitale@ 123456izssicilia.it (M.V.); giorgia.schiro91@ 123456gmail.com (G.S.); dottoremira@ 123456gmail.com (F.M.); maria.lagiglia@ 123456izssicilia.it (M.L.G.); antogentile1980@ 123456gmail.com (A.G.); susbi@ 123456live.it (S.G.); anna.carrozzo@ 123456izssicilia.it (A.C.); valentina.cumbo@ 123456gmail.com (V.C.); antonio.lastra@ 123456izssicilia.it (A.L.); valeria.gargano@ 123456izssicilia.it (V.G.)

[2 ]Department of Veterinary Science, University of Pisa, Viale delle Piagge n. 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy; riccardialessandra3@ 123456gmail.com

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[* ]Correspondence: domenico.vicari@ 123456izssicilia.it ; Tel.: +39-091-6565203

Author information

Delia Gambino https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1990-4141

Domenico Vicari https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8902-6383

Maria Vitale https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2084-2718

Giorgia Schirò https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3323-6653

Francesco Mira https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1276-0579

Antonio Lastra https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4786-5373

Valeria Gargano https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9684-7473

Article

Publisher ID: microorganisms-09-00203

DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms9010203

PMC ID: 7835999

PubMed ID: 33478101

SO-VID: 4792948b-94c5-401d-8a43-fd232e016b8c

License:

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

History

Date received : 16 December 2020

Date accepted : 18 January 2021

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Study on Bacteria Isolates and Antimicrobial Resistance in Wildlife in Sicily, Southern Italy

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Microbiology Independent Research Journal (MIR Journal)

Most cited references 43

Using the class 1 integron-integrase gene as a proxy for anthropogenic pollution

Integrons: agents of bacterial evolution.

Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms in Bacteria: Relationships Between Resistance Determinants of Antibiotic Producers, Environmental Bacteria, and Clinical Pathogens

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Cited by 7

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