Objective
Background: Enterococci are bacteria that are normal inhabitants of the intestinal floras of humans and warm blooded animals, and as such are released into the environment by animal waste (and fertilizers of animal origin). In contrast to coliforms and other intestinal indicator bacteria, the enterococci are rather tough and can survive for long periods of time in soil and water, and thus reenter the food chain. The fact that enterococci that are resistant to all presently available antibiotics have started to appear, possibly due to the use of drugs such as avoparcine in agriculture, is regarded as very alarming. Due to the high risk that resistant enterococci or resistance genes will spread via the food chain to humans from animal waste and natural fertilizers, we need to know more about the epidemiology and ecology of both normal and resistant enterococci.
Objectives: The overall objectives of the present proposal are to generate knowledge of the ecological and epidemiological role of enterococci in the food chain, and of their possible threats to human health due to resistance development and transfer of resistance. The project will involve studies on:
1, the population structure of enterococci from farm land, animal feed, animals, animal carcasses, vegetables, humans, and sewage in different areas within the EC;
2, the antibiotic resistance patterns of enterococci from the above sources;
3, the population structure of antibiotic resistant enterococci versus non resistant strains; and
4, the diversity and the epidemiology of resistance genes and the resistance mechanisms among enterococci.
Working plan: Samples from different reservoirs in the food chain (natural and artificial fertilised soil, sewage, water), animal fodder, animal faecal material, food (meat and vegetables), as well as human faecal materials (healthy individuals and hospitalised patients) are screened for both normal and highly resistant enterococcal populations. The enterococci from all samples are first characterised by a simple phenotyping method (the PhP system) in order to be able to measure the diversity of enterococcal populations in individual samples and the similarities between related samples. Isolates representing dominating and/or vancomycin resistant phenotypes are saved and characterised centrally by genotyping (PFGE, RAPD) in order to find out their clonal relations, are species identified (biochemical methods and PCR techniques), and their resistance patterns are evaluated (MIC method). In vancomycin resistant isolates the resistance gene is characterised.
Importance: Our investigations will result in knowledge of the diversity and the dynamics of both drug resistant and normal populations of enterococci from different environments. This knowledge will also result in a better understanding of the fate of all bacteria released into the environment by animal waste and fertilizers, their further fate in the food chain, and the dangers of antibiotic use in agriculture. The knowledge may thus serve as a basis for future actions regarding the policy of the antibiotic use and the treatment of animal waste within the EU. The knowledge can also serve as a basis for the current discussions on using the enterococci as indicators of faecal pollutions.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences health sciences public health epidemiology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs antibiotics
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture vegetable growing
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy drug resistance antibiotic resistance
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science domestic animals animal husbandry animal feed
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Coordinator
171 77 Stockholm
Sweden
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