Gut Microbiota Analysis Suggests The Target Bacteria for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Monitoring in Exotic Pet, Red – Ear Terrapin (Trachemys scripta elegans)

Abstract

Introduction Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health concerned. The dissemination of AMR between multisector including human animal and environment has been observed in difference studies. The common pet such as dogs and cats have been reported as a reservoir of AMR bacteria contribute to human. However, the urbanization shifts the demand of petowners to a small-size space-friendly exotic pet. Hong Kong is a crowded city with many high-rise buildings where small exotic pet is popular and the red-eared terrapin (Trachemys scripta subspecies elegans), a semiaquatic turtle is one of the most common. Until now, there is no report on gut flora in this pet species and no study has been done on AMR carrying in their gut. Thus, current knowledge limits the information to select appropriate target bacteria for AMR in exotic pets. We hypothesized that the knowledge from gut microbiota analysis can be used to suggest the target Enterobacteriaceae in Trachemys scripta elegans for AMR surveillance. Therefore, this study aims to characterize gut microbiota and AMR Enterobacteriaceae of the red-eared terrapin (Trachemys scriptaelegans). Materials and methods Fecal samples of 2 red-eared terrapins were collected for DNA extraction, subsequently subjected to highthroughput 16S rRNA sequencing and analysis for microbiota composition [1]. To identify the AMR Enterobacteriaceae, the same fecal samples were used for isolation of target bacterial family prior to identification of colonies using MALDI-TOF. All Enterobacteriaceae isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility (AST) using Kirby-Bauer disk susceptibility test method based on CLSI [2] guidelines. Results and discussion Microbiota analysis at the genus level of Enterobacteriaceae family shown the highest abundance unknown genus. This suggested that most Enterobacteriaceae in the red-ear terrapin is novel. Since the most abundance Enterobacteriaceae is unknown, the isolation of the most represent group of bacteriais difficult for AST study. The second abundance genus is Citrobacter, the genus identified by conventional bacterial isolation. The Citrobacter isolates were tested for AST and one resistant isolate was found. The result indicated that microbiota data can be used as a tool to select the bacterial target in AMR monitoring.