Detection of phenicol-oxazolidinone resistance gene <i>optrA</i> in <i>Aerococcus viridans</i> from bovine faeces, Italy
Sonia Nina Coccitto, Simona Fioriti, Marzia Cinthi, Gianluca Morroni, Elisabetta Di Giannatale, Marina Mingoia, Andrea Brenciani, Eleonora Giovanetti
Abstract
Sir, Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are now ubiquitous in non-clinical environments. Specifically, livestock farms are considered major reservoirs of ARGs and pose a risk for human health, since ARGs can be spread to human bacterial pathogens. Although many antimicrobials administered to animals are used exclusively in veterinary applications, most of them can drive the co-selection of genes encoding resistance to drugs that are critical in human medicine. Oxazolidinones, including linezolid and tedizolid, are effective antimicrobial agents for the treatment of severe human infections due to MDR Gram-positive bacteria and they have never been approved for animal use. Nevertheless, acquired linezolid resistance has arisen in bacteria of animal origin, as well as in human isolates, due to the extensive use of phenicols in veterinary medicine that provides the selective pressure for a rapid dissemination of the cfr,1 optrA2 and poxtA3 linezolid resistance genes on animal farms.4...