2023 Seminar Series | Programa Doutoral em Ciências Biomédicas - 7ª. Edição
Data: 24 de maio
Hora: 12h00
Local de realização: Campus Universitário de Gandra - Sala 2033
ENTRADA LIVRE
TEMA:
“Detection of bacteria resistant to last-line antibiotics in dog foods commercialized in Europe: trend or threat?”
Ana Raquel Pinho Freitas
TOXRUN (Toxicology Research Unit), University Institute of Health Sciences (IUCS), CESPU, Gandra, Portugal
UCIBIO - Research Unit on Applied Molecular Biosciences (BacTdrugs lab) and Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy - i4HB, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Portugal
Anfitriã:
Jéssica Fonseca, MSc
(Biomedical Sciencies PhD Student)
Resumo da apresentação:
Antimicrobial resistant bacteria (AMR) are among the top ten threats to global health as recognized by the World Health Organization. As AMR is a complex and multifaceted problem occurring at the animal-human-ecosystems interface, a One Health approach involving the analysis of bacterial isolates from different ecological niches is required to identify the drivers promoting antimicrobial resistance selection and dissemination across different settings. The increase in the number of pets in recent years has been followed by an exponential growth of the industrial pet food sector, which has been accompanied by new food safety risks, namely antibiotic resistance. The aim of this study was to investigate whether dog food commercially available in Portugal is a reservoir of clinically-relevant antibiotic resistant enterococci. To accomplish this goal, 55 samples (25 brands) were collected on 9 commercial surfaces in the Porto region and analyzed by classical, front-line techniques (phylogenomics) and bioinformatics tools to treat genomics high-throughput data, which are critical in modern Microbiology. Overall, this project showed that dog food from international brands is a vehicle of clinically-relevant enterococci carrying resistance to last resort antibiotics and relevant virulence genes, thus positioning pet food as an important source of antibiotic resistance spread within the One Health context.
Biography:
1998-2004. Graduation in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto.
2006-2011. PhD in Microbiology. Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto & Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain.
2010-2014. Diretor of Pharmacy (Farmácia do Campo), Porto, Portugal.
2014-2017. Post-doc Fellow (FCT) at UCIBIO, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto.
2018-2021. CEEC Researcher at UCIBIO, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto.
2018-2021. Invited Assistant Professor in Microbiology. University Institute of Health Sciences. CESPU.
Since Oct./2021. Assistant Professor in Bacteriology & Microbiology. University Institute of Health Sciences. CESPU.
