Comparing the transmission of carbapenemase-producing and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli between broiler chickens.

The emergence of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) is a threat to public health, because of their resistance to clinically important carbapenem antibiotics. The emergence of CPE in meat-producing animals is particularly worrying because consumption of meat contaminated with resistant bacteria comparable to CPE, such as extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae, contributed to colonization in humans worldwide. Currently, no data on the transmission of CPE in livestock is available.

Chicken gut microbiome members limit the spread of an antimicrobial resistance plasmid in .

Plasmid-mediated antimicrobial resistance is a major contributor to the spread of resistance genes within bacterial communities. Successful plasmid spread depends upon a balance between plasmid fitness effects on the host and rates of horizontal transmission. While these key parameters are readily quantified , the influence of interactions with other microbiome members is largely unknown.

Second compartment widens plasmid invasion conditions: Two-compartment pair-formation model of conjugation in the gut.

Understanding under which conditions conjugative plasmids encoding antibiotic resistance can invade bacterial communities in the gut is of particular interest to combat the spread of antibiotic resistance within and between animals and humans. We extended a one-compartment model of conjugation to a two-compartment model, to analyse how differences in plasmid dynamics in the gut lumen and at the gut wall affect the invasion of plasmids. We compared scenarios with one and two compartments, different migration rates between the lumen and wall compartments, and different population dynamics.

Effect of donor-recipient relatedness on the plasmid conjugation frequency: a meta-analysis.

Background: Conjugation plays a major role in the transmission of plasmids encoding antibiotic resistance genes in both clinical and general settings. The conjugation efficiency is influenced by many biotic and abiotic factors, one of which is the taxonomic relatedness between donor and recipient bacteria. A comprehensive overview of the influence of donor-recipient relatedness on conjugation is still lacking, but such an overview is important to quantitatively assess the risk of plasmid transfer and the effect of interventions which limit the spread of antibiotic resistance, and to obtain parameter values for conjugation in mathematical models.