QREC-MaP - Quinolone resistance despite low antimicrobial usage – mechanisms and possible preventive measures

It is well known that usage of antimicrobials promotes the development and spread of resistance. In addition to resistance driven by antimicrobial usage, development and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance can occur through other mechanisms that are currently unidentified or otherwise poorly characterized or understood.

The Norwegian animal production, with low antimicrobial usage, provides a unique platform for building basic knowledge and gaining insight into alternative mechanisms behind the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance.

In Norwegian livestock production the use of fluoroquinolones is nearly negligible and resistance to this class of antimicrobial agents among bacteria from production animals has usually been a rare finding. However, after the implementation of a selective detection method in the Norwegian monitoring program for antimicrobial resistance in the veterinary sector (NORM-VET), it has been shown that quinolone resistant bacteria are present at low levels in a high proportion of the samples.

There is currently a substantial knowledge gap regarding how, why, when and where this resistance has developed. Moreover, it is unclear if there is any association between the findings of resistant bacteria in the various production chains. Also, any effect of environmental factors is unclear. It is crucial to understand these mechanisms to be able to identify, test and implement measures for prevention of resistance development and spread, which is important for maintaining our favourable national situation, with a low level of antimicrobial resistance compared to most other countries.

All these aspects will be addressed in the current project.

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