Lack of dissemination of acquired resistance to β-lactams in small wild mammals around an isolated village in the Amazonian forest.

Abstract

In this study, we quantitatively evaluated the spread of resistance to β-lactams and of integrons in small rodents and marsupials living at various distances from a point of antibiotic's use. Rectal swabs from 114 animals were collected in Trois-Sauts, an isolated village in French Guiana, and along a 3 km transect heading through the non-anthropized primary forest. Prevalence of ticarcillin-resistant enterobacteria was 36% (41/114). Klebsiella spp., naturally resistant to ticarcillin, were found in 31.1% (23/73) of animals from the village and in an equal ratio of 31.7% (13/41) of animals trapped along the transect. By contrast Escherichia coli with acquired resistance to ticarcillin were found in 13.7% (10/73) of animals from the village and in only 2.4% (1/41) of those from the transect (600 m from the village). There was a huge diversity of E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae strains with very unique and infrequent sequence types. The overall prevalence of class 1 integrons carriage was 19.3% (22/114) homogenously distributed between animals from the village and the transect, which suggests a co-selection by a non-antibiotic environmental factor. Our results indicate that the anthropogenic acquired antibiotic resistance did not disseminate in the wild far from the point of selective pressure.