IRTA, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA, IRTA-UAB), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
Departamento de Sanidad Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Córdoba-Agrifood Excellence International Campus (ceiA3), 14071 Córdoba, Spain.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Apr 1;763:143018. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143018. Epub 2020 Oct 19.
Campylobacter spp. and Salmonella spp. are the two most frequent zoonotic bacteria involved in human enteric infections in the European Union. Both enteropathogens have been isolated from a diversity of wild birds in Northern Europe, but there is limited information about gulls as potential reservoirs in Southern Europe. A broad sampling of fledglings from nine colonies of yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis, N = 1222) and Audouin's gull (Larus audouinii, N = 563) has been conducted in Spain and Tunisia during the late chick-rearing period. Overall, the occurrence of Campylobacter spp. and Salmonella spp. was 5.2% (93/1785, CI: 4.2-6.2%) and 20.8% (371/1785, CI: 18.9-22.7%), respectively. The most predominant Campylobacter species was C. jejuni (94.6%). A high diversity of Salmonella serovars was isolated and the most frequent were those also reported in human outbreaks, such as Salmonella Typhimurium. A high proportion of Campylobacter and Salmonella isolates showed resistance to at least one antimicrobial agent (20.2% and 51.5%, respectively), while 19.2% of Salmonella isolates were multidrug-resistant. These results show the relevance of gulls as reservoirs of Campylobacter and Salmonella by maintaining and spreading these bacteria, including resistant and multidrug resistant strains, in the environment. Our results suggest that gulls can serve as sentinel species for antibiotic pressure in the environment.
弯曲杆菌和沙门氏菌是欧盟中与人类肠道感染最相关的两种最常见的人畜共患病细菌。这两种肠道病原体都已从北欧的各种野生鸟类中分离出来，但关于海鸥作为南欧潜在储主的信息有限。在西班牙和突尼斯，在雏鸟后期育雏期间，对来自九个黄腿鸥（Larus michahellis，N=1222）和奥杜邦鸥（Larus audouinii，N=563）的雏鸥进行了广泛的采样。总体而言，弯曲杆菌和沙门氏菌的检出率分别为 5.2%（93/1785，置信区间：4.2-6.2%）和 20.8%（371/1785，置信区间：18.9-22.7%）。最主要的弯曲杆菌物种是空肠弯曲杆菌（94.6%）。分离出了多种沙门氏菌血清型，最常见的是与人类暴发相关的血清型，如肠炎沙门氏菌。相当比例的弯曲杆菌和沙门氏菌分离株至少对一种抗菌药物具有耐药性（分别为 20.2%和 51.5%），而 19.2%的沙门氏菌分离株是多药耐药菌。这些结果表明，海鸥通过在环境中维持和传播这些细菌，包括耐药菌和多药耐药菌，是弯曲杆菌和沙门氏菌的重要储存宿主。我们的研究结果表明，海鸥可以作为环境中抗生素压力的哨兵物种。
