Impact of Contrasting Poultry Exposures on Human, Poultry, and Wastewater Antibiotic Resistomes in Bangladesh

Interactions between humans, animals and the environment are considered critical foci for addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). However, One Health data on AMR in low- and middle-income countries are presently scarce. Using metagenomics, we investigated whether and how the antibiotic resistomes of humans are influenced by exposure to intensive and non-intensively reared poultry within contrasting settings of urban wet markets and rural households in Bangladesh. We also consider poultry and wastewater resistomes in these settings. We found that occupational poultry exposure did not significantly alter the human faecal resistome. In contrast, macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin and streptothricin antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were enriched in poultry from urban wet markets relative to rural household chickens. Wastewater had the highest ARG richness, though this was only partially explained by poultry caecal and human faecal sources. Wastewater also contained clinically significant carbapenem ARGs. This study therefore provides critical insight into the distribution of ARGs in Bangladesh.