Sun Wei, Wang Jun, Wang Guangdong, Jiang Lan, Feng Wenlu, Dang Shuangsuo, Li Mei, Jiao Shuo, Wei Gehong, Gu Jie, Tiedje James M, Qian Xun
Interdisciplinary Research Center for Soil Microbial Ecology and Land Sustainable Productivity in Dry Areas, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi 712100, China.
Department of Environmental Science, College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi 712100, China.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 May 6;122(18):e2403866122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2403866122. Epub 2025 Apr 28.
Most of the global antibiotic consumption is by the livestock industry, making livestock farms a hotspot of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Farm air poses direct ARG exposure to workers, but the health risks of air resistomes remain unclear. We evaluated the human exposure and health risks of air resistomes in pig and chicken farms and compared air resistomes in Chinese farms to those in European farms given their long-term restrictions on use of antibiotics in livestock. We found that livestock air was highly enriched in ARGs, with each cell harboring seven times more ARGs than urban air. The daily ARG inhalation of farm workers was equivalent to several years of ARG inhalation by urban residents. ARGs encoding resistance to last-resort antibiotics such as and were detected in farm air, and variants were prevalent in both Chinese and European farms. ARGs in livestock air were highly associated with mobile genetic elements, and conjugation experiments confirmed their cross-phyla transferability. The projected resistome risk of farm air was significantly higher than well-recognized ARG hotspots like air from hospitals, sewage treatment plants, and from animal manures. The diversity, abundance, and risk score of air resistomes in Chinese farms were significantly higher than those in European farms, suggesting that long-term restriction of antibiotic use mitigates antibiotic resistance in the livestock environment. Our results underscore the high exposure of farm workers to ARGs via farm air and highlight its role in ARG dissemination, supporting the importance of antibiotic stewardship practices in combating antibiotic resistance.
全球大部分抗生素消费来自畜牧业，这使得养殖场成为抗生素抗性基因（ARGs）的热点地区。养殖场空气使工人直接暴露于ARGs中，但空气抗性组的健康风险仍不明确。我们评估了猪场和鸡场空气中抗性组对人类的暴露情况及健康风险，并将中国养殖场的空气抗性组与欧洲养殖场的进行了比较，因为欧洲长期限制在牲畜中使用抗生素。我们发现，养殖场空气中的ARGs高度富集，每个细胞中的ARGs比城市空气中的多7倍。养殖场工人每天吸入的ARGs相当于城市居民数年吸入的量。在养殖场空气中检测到了编码对诸如和等最后手段抗生素耐药的ARGs，并且变体在中国和欧洲的养殖场中都很普遍。养殖场空气中的ARGs与移动遗传元件高度相关，接合实验证实了它们的跨门转移能力。预计养殖场空气的抗性组风险显著高于医院、污水处理厂和动物粪便等公认的ARGs热点地区。中国养殖场空气抗性组的多样性、丰度和风险评分显著高于欧洲养殖场，这表明长期限制抗生素使用可减轻牲畜环境中的抗生素耐药性。我们的结果强调了养殖场工人通过养殖场空气高度暴露于ARGs，并突出了其在ARGs传播中的作用，支持了抗生素管理措施在对抗抗生素耐药性方面的重要性。
