Metagenomic Analysis of Acquired Antibiotic Resistance Determinants in the Gut Microbiota of Wild Boars - Preliminary Results.

INTRODUCTION

Land application of manure that contains antibiotics and resistant bacteria may facilitate the establishment of an environmental reservoir of antibiotic-resistant microbes, promoting their dissemination into agricultural and natural habitats. The main objective of this study was to search for acquired antibiotic resistance determinants in the gut microbiota of wild boar populations living in natural habitats.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Gastrointestinal samples of free-living wild boars were collected in the Zemplén Mountains in Hungary and were characterised by culture-based, metagenomic, and molecular microbiological methods. Bioinformatic analysis of the faecal microbiome of a hunted wild boar from Japan was used for comparative studies. Also, shotgun metagenomic sequencing data of two untreated sewage wastewater samples from North Pest (Hungary) from 2016 were analysed by bioinformatic methods. Minimum spanning tree diagrams for seven-gene MLST profiles of 104 strains isolated in Europe from wild boars and domestic pigs were generated in Enterobase.

RESULTS

In the ileum of a diarrhoeic boar, a dominant O112ab:H2 strain with intermediate resistance to gentamicin, tobramycin, and amikacin was identified, displaying sequence type ST388 and harbouring the EAST1 toxin gene. Metagenomic analyses of the colon and rectum digesta revealed the presence of the , , , and antibiotic resistance genes that were also detected in the gut microbiome of four other wild boars from the mountains. Furthermore, the and genes were identified in the faecal microbiome of a hunted wild boar from Japan.

CONCLUSION

The gastrointestinal microbiota of the free-living wild boars examined in this study carried acquired antibiotic resistance determinants that are highly prevalent among domestic livestock populations.