ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE IN E COLI FROM PIGLETS FED DIETS WITH AND WITHOUT ANTIMICROBIALS

摘要

Feed-based sub therapeutic antimicrobials have been in use for nearly 50 years and their efficacy well documented. However, many are currently banned from use in Europe and the potential risks versus the benefits of FSA use is being investigated in the US. Continued concems regarding the apparent association between the use of FSAs in food animal production and the concomitant increase in antimicrobial drug resistance among zoonotic enteropathogens have provided the impetus to ban the use of FSAs infood animals. Of equal concern is the persistence and transfer of antimicrobial resistance determinants among commensal flora such as Escherichia coli. The swine industry is a major consumer of FSAs, and studies have shown increases in antimicrobial resistance from operations that use FSAs compared to those that do not. The objective of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial susceptibilities of fecal E coli populations from growing piglets fed diets with and without subtherapeutic levels of apramycin, carbadox, and chlortetracycline.