This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A new study led by Kumar Venkitanarayanan, dean of the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR), has shown that plant-based antimicrobials are a promising path toward controlling antibiotic resistance in foodborne pathogens. The research is published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science.
Following the widespread adoption of antibiotics in both agriculture and human medicine, many pathogens have evolved resistance to existing antibiotics. This has created a possible near future in which we could have no feasible treatments for a host of bacterial infections. This has led many scientists to look at alternative means of controlling bacteria and stopping the spread of antibiotic-resistant genes.
Bacteria can engage in something called horizontal gene transfer (HGT), in which they can exchange useful genes—including genes that convey antibiotic resistance. "Bacteria in any environment—in soil, in nature or in the gut of humans or animals—can share their genetic information," says Venkitanarayanan, who is also a professor of animal science. "Simple reduction in antibiotic usage will not reverse antibiotic resistance.
We need novel approaches to prevent the dissemination of bacterial antibiotic resistance, especially through horizontal gene transfer." One prominent example of this phenomenon is antibiotic-resistant Salmonella, a foodborne pathogen that causes illness in approximately 1.3 million Americans each year, which could potentially transfer antibiotic resistance through HGT to commensal bacteria in the gut, including E. coli. "We have seen that once bacteria develop resistance to an antibiotic, they keep propagating it," Venkitanarayanan says. They keep transmitting it to millions of other bacteria." Venkitanarayanan's lab focuses on phytochemicals—chemicals derived from plants.
One benefit of using phytochemicals is that, since the phytochemicals he works with are derived from edible plants, they are safer than synthetic chemicals for use in food production—even for organic producers. Venkitanarayanan found that a blend of phytochemicals derived from coconut, cinnamon, cranberry juice and oregano is an effective treatment to prevent HGT in poultry production. The study shows that the phytochemicals were able to reduce the rate of HGT from antibiotic-resistant Salmonella to E. coli to below 50% in each environment the researchers tested.
In this study, Venkitanarayanan looked at adding the phytochemicals to manure and water and using them as a dietary supplement. This approach targets three critical locations where bacteria frequently grow on poultry farms, including in the guts of chickens. "My objective was to show that phytochemicals are effective at preventing the dissemination of antibiotic-resistant genes by HGT from pathogenic bacteria to commensal [nonpathogenic] bacteria in the gut," Venkitanarayanan says.
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