Lincomycin, chlortetracycline, and amoxicillin are commonly used antimicrobials for growth promotion and infectious disease prophylaxis in swine production. In this study, we investigated the shifts and resistance development among intestinal microbiota in pregnant sows before and after lincomycin, chlortetracycline, and amoxicillin treatment by using phylogenetic analysis, bacterial enumeration, and PCR. After the antimicrobial treatment, shifts in microbial community, an increased proportion of resistant bacteria, and genes related to antimicrobial resistance as compared to the day before antimicrobial administration (day 0) were observed. Importantly, a positive correlation between antimicrobial resistance gene expression in different categories, especially those encoding aminoglycoside and β-lactamase and antimicrobial resistance, was observed. These findings demonstrate an important role of antimicrobial usage in animals in the development of antimicrobial resistance, and support the notion that prudent use of antimicrobials in swine is needed to reduce the risk of the emergence of multi-drug resistant zoonotic pathogens.
Keywords: 16S rRNA; Bacterial Enumeration; antimicrobial-resistant genes; culture-independent method; qPCR.