Viable antimicrobial resistant bacteria are transported from cattle feed yards via aerosolized particulate matter
Date
2018Author
Thompson, Kelsey N.
Wooten, Kimberly J.
Hensley, Loren L.
Smith, Philip N.
Mayer, Gregory D.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Increased awareness of consequences associated with
Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria (ARB) has given rise to considerable
research on how and where resistance to antimicrobial agents
occurs. A recent investigation that utilized DNA sequencing-based
technologies to characterize bacterial communities suggests that ARBs
are generated on cattle feed yards and dispersed into the environment
via wind-blown Particulate Matter (PM). Despite compelling evidence
that bacterial DNA was prominent in fugitive PM, it remained unclear
whether the bacterial DNA was derived from viable microorganisms.
Thus, the narrow focus of this investigation was to determine whether
bacteria associated with airborne PM emanating from cattle feed yards
are viable, and if so, whether any cultivable bacteria were resistant to
antibiotics. Numerous viable aerobic, microaerophilic, and anaerobic
bacteria were successfully cultured from aerosolized, feed yardderived PM. Several cultured isolates were resistant to an assortment of
antibiotics. This confirms that viable antimicrobial resistant bacteria do
indeed travel on airborne PM emanating from cattle feed yards.