Genomic Profiling of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Clinical Isolates from Cattle in the Texas Panhandle, USA.

Rising antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in serotypes host-adapted to cattle is of increasing concern to the beef and dairy industry. The bulk of the existing literature focuses on AMR post-slaughter. In comparison, the understanding of AMR in among pre-harvest cattle is still limited, particularly in Texas, which ranks top five in beef and dairy exports in the United States; inherently, the health of Texas cattle has nationwide implications for the health of the United States beef and dairy industry. In this study, long-read whole genome sequencing and bioinformatic methods were utilized to analyze antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in 98 isolates from beef and dairy cattle in the Texas Panhandle. Fisher exact tests and elastic net models accounting for population structure were used to infer associations between genomic ARG profiles and antimicrobial phenotypic profiles and metadata. Gene mapping was also performed to assess the role of mobile genetic elements in harboring ARGs. Antimicrobial resistance genes were found to be statistically different between the type of cattle operation and serotypes. Beef operations were statistically significantly associated with more ARGs compared to dairy operations. Heidelberg, followed by Dublin isolates, were associated with the most ARGs. Additionally, specific classes of ARGs were only present within mobile genetic elements.