Antibiotic resistance genes in Bacteroides isolated from faeces of Philippine ducks, Anas luzonica and Anas platyrhynchos domesticus

Abstract

The problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has severely afflicted the livestock industry because antibiotics are indiscriminately used for treating infectious diseases and for nontherapeutic purposes. Unfortunately, compared with human AMR research, livestock AMR research is lagging. Thus, this study aimed to contribute to the dearth of knowledge regarding livestock AMR by detecting 10 antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in Bacteroides isolated from duck faeces. The 10 ARGs were tetQ, linA, bexA, msrSA, mefA, nim, cfiA, cepA, cfxA, and ermF. In total, 32 isolates were grown, and their DNAs were extracted and subjected to polymerase chain reaction. All isolates were ARG-positive for 1–3 different genes. The ARG-positive genes were linA (21/32), mefA (20/32), and bexA (1/32). Of the 32 isolates, 25 (78%) contained 2–3 ARGs. Although all isolates were ARG-positive, AMR may not be that prevalent in the duck livestock industry because only a maximum of 3/10 ARGs were detected. This is possibly because the duck livestock industry is still a small-scale backyard industry; hence, the use of antibiotics in this industry is not that rampant. However, some reports have shown that Bacteroides exhibit extensive horizontal transfer of resistance and virulence genes. The prevalence of these genes may increase if the misuse of antibiotics in the duck industry is not addressed early.