Identification and quantification of antimicrobial resistance genes in the microbiome of wild seabirds from Brazil: how do anthropogenic impacts affect these parameters?

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance emergence is considered a threat to both human and animal health. Antimicrobial environmental contamination may promote, through horizontal transference, gene exchange of pathogenic and nonpathogenic environmental bacteria. The consequent remodeling of the existing microbiomes creates evolutional and environmental changes that associated to their dissemination capacity confer to antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) the role of environmental pollutants. Seabirds respond rapidly to environmental changes - excellent bioindicators of the marine ecosystem health. Herein we intend to contribute to the understanding of the degree of human interference over the marine ecosystem through the evaluation of the presence, identification and posterior quantification of selected ARGs (tetA, tetB, tetY, tetK, tetM, tetQ, sulI, sulII, str, aadA, catI, catII, erm(B), erm(F), qnrB, qnrS, blaCTX-M, blaTEM, mecA and mcr-1) present in plasmids of the microbiome of wild seabirds upon admission on a rehabilitation center in the southern (R3 Animal - Florianópolis/SC) and in the northeastern Brazilian coast (Fernando de Noronha - Recife/PE). Real-time PCR (rtPCR) will be performed in fresh fecal samples (enemas) collected upon admission into the rehabilitation center (1st scenario), in a feeding hotspot located in a beach with free turist access (Boldró beach - 2nd scenario), and in colonies located in islands with access restricted to researchers and not inhabited by humans (minimally anthropized) (do Meio and Rata Islands - 3rd scenario), in order to establish and compare the degree of environmental contamination by these genes in the studied scenarios, considering the variables of sex, age, body mass, niche (coastal or pelagic), and behavior (migratory and nonmigratory).