2025/12/24 by Jie Hou, Ye Li, QingLin CHEN +4 · 1 voice
Environmental Science · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Immunology and Microbiology · #Pharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental Impacts #Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria #Antibiotic Use and Resistance
paper · doi:10.1016/j.eehl.2025.100212
openalex publication_date 2025/12/24 · openalex created_date 2025/12/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
strains harboring last-resort antibiotic resistance genes (LARGs) across 20 regions of China were retrieved from the NCBI RefSeq database. Our analysis uncovered that 1767 human-animal isolate pairs exhibited high homology, with the pairwise average nucleotide identity (ANI) values exceeding 99.5%. By employing phylogenetic analysis, transmission cluster identification, ANI, and single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis, 42 human-animal transmission clusters and 306 recent transmission events were identified. Strikingly, more than 90% of these human-animal transmission events (284 out of 306) spanned different regions. Counterfactual analysis indicated that the cross-regional transmission significantly contributes to the prevalence of these ARBs in humans (21.62%), while its role in the food-animal epidemic is less pronounced (3.47%). Our findings underscore the urgency of a more integrated, nationwide approach to address the spread of LARG-harboring bacteria, which is essential to preserving the efficacy of our remaining antibiotic arsenal and safeguarding public health on a global scale.