Prevalence and dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes and coselection of heavy metals in Chinese dairy farms

Abstract

This study aims to explore prevalence and dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in dairy farms. A variety of ARGs conferring resistance to most classes of antibiotics were detected in feces and soil samples obtained from dairy farms, using a high-throughput metagenomic sequencing approach. The ARGs observed in the feces and the soil samples were significantly correlated (p<0.01). The abundance of mobile genetics elements, such as transposase, was also examined to evaluate the potential risk of horizontal ARGs transfer. The positive correlation (p<0.001) between the total abundance of transposase genes and ARGs in the soil samples suggested strong dissemination capacity of ARGs in soil. In addition, the ARGs and metal resistance genes (MRGs) were significantly correlated with heavy metals in the feces (p<0.01), suggesting that the heavy metals promoted the emergence of metal resistance, and participated in the coselection processes for ARGs. The prevalence of ARGs with high levels of genetic mobile elements in the dairy farms suggests that cattle excrement is a major reservoir of ARGs with a high risk of dissemination, which increases the potential risk of environmental pollution and threatens public health.