Reassessing the role of wild birds in the spread of antibiotic resistance: the white stork as a model species in studying populations from Central European river valley
Abstract
ABSTRACT It is commonly accepted that the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria in the hospital environment, in food production, and in the wild is the consequence of the overuse of antibiotics. The presence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains was reported in both wild and farmed animals. It was suggested previously that wild birds may be carriers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria acquired from agriculture and/or industrial/urban habitats. Here, we used the white stork (Ciconia ciconia) as a model species to assess the presence and origin of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a breeding population located in river valley landscapes of western Poland. Cloacal swabs from 50 nestlings across 19 nests were collected during the 2019 breeding season, along with 49 environmental samples (soil, water, and food items) from known foraging sites. A total of 147 bacterial isolates representing 49 species were obtained. The majority originated from cloacal samples (58.5%), followed by water (16.3%), food (15.0%), and soil (10.2%). Resistance testing against 19 antibiotics revealed significantly higher resistance in food-derived isolates, while no significant differences were found among soil, water, and cloacal isolates. Correlation analyses based on resistance profiles showed no significant relationship between cloacal isolates and those from soil (rs = 0.11; P = 0.647) or food (rs = 0.25; P = 0.289), but a strong correlation with water isolates (rs = 0.68; P = 0.001). These…
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