SIGNATURE WORK
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 2022

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health threat that occurs when bacterial infections become resistant to antibiotic treatments. The occurrence of AMR is common in both humans and animals, and the spread of AMR bacteria from animals to humans has the potential to increase the burden of AMR infections in humans. A common antibiotic used in livestock farms in China is colistin, which is a last-resort antibiotic when treating multi-drug resistant bacterial infections in humans. The gene MCR-1 can confer plasmid-mediated resistance to colistin. This report evaluated the prevalence of MCR-1 gene resistance in pig oral secretion samples in China and assessed farm-level data to identify potential risk factors. Swine oral samples were collected from six farms between 2015 and 2016 in two Chinese provinces, Shandong and Jiangsu. Samples underwent PCR and sequencing analysis to identify and characterize MCR-1 gene resistance. Positive samples were further analyzed using bivariate and linear regression techniques to determine significant risk factors for the MCR-1 gene detection. It was determined that the factors possibly contributing to MCR-1 positivity were the specific farm, past illnesses, and discard type of pig carcasses. This data can be used to better inform the pig farm management practices and policy makes to reduce the prevalence of MCR-1 gene resistance, which would reduce the transmission risk of colistin-resistant infections to humans.