One Health resistome analysis in Western-Pomerania

Infections by multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) pose a serious global health threat. Metagenomic analysis provides the possibility to characterize the bacterial resistome in-depth and reveals insights into the abundance and diversity of antimicrobial resistance genes (AMRG). Regional AMR data are often missing, however, they are pivotal for insights in MDRO transmission routes among human and veterinary medicine as well as husbandry, wildlife and the environment. For this project, we initially performed metagenomic profiling of wildlife fecal samples collected from Western Pomerania (wild boar and deer). The results were then compared to samples from dairy farms, which also stem from Western Pomerania. The overall wildlife resistome demonstrated significantly smaller normalized counts for AMRG compared to livestock samples. The AMRG levels were lower in wild ruminants than in wild boar. We observed significant differences between the farms investigated, particularly in the proportions of tetracycline and beta-lactam resistance genes, which seemingly correspond to the antibiotics predominantly used on the respective farm. Our regional analyses helped to eliminate white spots on the Pomeranian AMR map. The results of this pilot study call for future studies with additional wildlife samples from this region (wild boar, deer, gulls) as well as samples from cattle and pig farms. To estimate the anthropogenic influence, additional wastewater samples will also be included.