Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Charles Darwin Research Station, Charles Darwin Foundation, Santa Cruz, Ecuador.
Zoonoses Public Health. 2019 Dec;66(8):900-908. doi: 10.1111/zph.12639. Epub 2019 Aug 24.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), encoded by plasmid-mediated AMR genes (ARGs), is an increasing global public health threat. Wildlife play a fundamental role as sentinels, reservoirs and potential vectors of ARGs. For the first time in Galapagos, we have identified and quantified the presence of ARGs in free-living giant tortoises (Chelonoidis porteri). We performed ARG analyses by quantitative PCR of faeces collected from the cloaca of 30 tortoises widely distributed across Santa Cruz Island. Validated samples (n = 28) were analysed by a panel of up to 21 different ARGs and all 28 tortoise samples were positive to one or more genes encoding resistance. Thirteen of 21 tested ARGs were present in at least one sample, and 10 tortoises (35.7%) had a multi-resistant pattern. We recommend additional research so we may more fully understand resistance patterns across taxa and geographical locations throughout the Galapagos archipelago, and the implications of ARGs for the health of wildlife, domestic animals, and humans. In this study, we found 100% of sampled giant tortoises had ARGs present in their faeces, suggesting a large-scale distribution of these genes within the archipelago.
抗生素耐药性（AMR）由质粒介导的 AMR 基因（ARGs）编码，是日益严重的全球公共卫生威胁。野生动物在作为 ARGs 的哨兵、储存库和潜在载体方面发挥着至关重要的作用。在加拉帕戈斯群岛，我们首次在自由生活的巨型陆龟（Chelonoidis porteri）中发现并定量了 ARGs 的存在。我们通过对来自圣克鲁斯岛广泛分布的 30 只陆龟泄殖腔收集的粪便进行定量 PCR 分析来进行 ARG 分析。经过验证的样本（n=28）通过多达 21 种不同的 ARG 进行分析，所有 28 只陆龟样本均对一种或多种编码耐药性的基因呈阳性。在至少一个样本中存在 13 种测试的 ARG，10 只陆龟（35.7%）具有多耐药模式。我们建议进行更多的研究，以便我们可以更全面地了解整个加拉帕戈斯群岛内跨分类群和地理位置的耐药模式，以及 ARGs 对野生动物、家畜和人类健康的影响。在这项研究中，我们发现 100%采样的巨型陆龟的粪便中存在 ARGs，这表明这些基因在群岛内广泛分布。
