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JAC Advance Access published online on March 31, 2006
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, doi:10.1093/jac/dkl122
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received January 18, 2006
Revised March 10, 2006
Accepted March 14, 2006

Brief report

Effect of human vicinity on antimicrobial resistance and integrons in animal faecal Escherichia coli

David Skurnik 1, Raymond Ruimy 1, Antoine Andremont 1, Christine Amorin 2, Pierre Rouquet 3, Bertrand Picard 2, and Erick Denamur 2 *

1 Laboratoire de Bactériologie, Hôpital Bichat-Claude Bernard, AP-HP and EA3964, Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot, 46 rue Henri Huchard, 75018 Paris, France
2 INSERM U722 and Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot, UFR de Médecine, Site Xavier Bichat, 16 rue Henri Huchard, 75018 Paris, France
3 Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville (CIRMF), BP 769, Franceville, Gabon

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Erick Denamur, E-mail: denamur{at}bichat.inserm.fr


  Abstract

Objectives: To determine the level of antimicrobial resistance and the occurrence of class 1, 2 and 3 integrons in faecal Escherichia coli from several animal populations variously exposed to human contact.

Methods: A collection of 341 faecal E. coli isolates was constituted from several animal populations subject to various degrees of exposure to humans: 18 animals never exposed to humans (living in the Antarctic or Gabon), 71 wild animals living in a low human density area (mountainous region of the Pyrenees, France), 61 wild animals living in a higher human density area (Fontainebleau forest near Paris, France), and 128 extensively reared farm animals and 42 pet dogs, both living in the Pyrenees. Resistance to antimicrobial agents was determined by the method of disc diffusion and quantified using the resistance score of BE Murray, JJ Mathewson, HL DuPont, CD Ericsson and RR Reves (Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 1990; 34: 515-18). Integrons were characterized by triplex real-time PCR and sequencing. The absence of epidemiologic clones was confirmed by PCR-based methods.

Results: A gradient of resistance ranging from absence to high prevalence (resistance score of 18.7%) and a gradual increase in the prevalence of class 1 integrons (from 0% to 16%), both correlated with the increase in exposure to humans, were observed. In wild animals with little contact with humans, resistance, when present, was not mediated by integrons.

Conclusions: Our findings firmly establish that the current prevalence of antimicrobial resistance found in animal faecal bacteria, as well as the prevalence of integrons, is clearly anthropogenic. The presence of integrons may constitute an adaptive process to environments whose antimicrobial pressure exceeds a certain threshold.

Keywords: selective pressure; environment; wild; domestic; pets.
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