How do birds contribute to the spread of antimicrobial resistant microorganisms?

抗菌素耐药基因(AMR)在病原微生物中的出现和传播是本世纪最大的健康问题之一。过度使用抗生素治疗人类和牲畜都是AMR的来源，但AMR的第三个来源来自自然环境。特别是，在野生鸟类的肠道菌群中发现了它，最明显的是海鸥，包括多药耐药菌株，但鸟类中AMR对人类健康和AMR传播的影响仍不清楚。鸟类对AMR细菌的传播构成了特别的挑战，因为一些已知携带AMR细菌的物种经常在大陆之间迁徙。海鸥也特别令人感兴趣，因为它们在觅食模式上越来越多地与人类遗址联系在一起。考虑到这一点，本项目将结合BTO项目合作伙伴收集的大量GPS轨迹数据集和获取跟踪数据的地点的采样，调查海鸥移动行为在AMR潜在传播和维持中的作用。主要目的是确定觅食和迁徙对AMR传播和维持的相对作用和影响，以及与人类健康的潜在联系。

The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance genes (AMR) amongst pathogenic microorganisms is one of the greatest health issues of this century. Over-use of antibiotics in treating humans and livestock are both well established as sources of AMR but a third source of AMR comes from the natural environment. In particular, it has been found in the gut flora of wild birds most notably the Larus gulls, including multidrug resistant strains, but the implications of AMR in birds for human health and the spread of AMR remains unknown. Birds provide a particular challenge in the dissemination of AMR bacteria because some of the species known to carry AMR bacteria migrate, often between continents. Gulls are also of particular interest as they have become increasingly associated with human sites in their foraging patterns. With this in mind, this project will investigate the role of gull movement behaviour in the potential spread and maintenance of AMR using a combination of a large data set of GPS tracks collected by project partners the BTO in combination with sampling at the sites where tracking data was obtained. The key aim is to determine the relative roles and impact of foraging and migration on spread and maintenance of AMR and potential links to human health.