Antibiotic resistance mediated by bacterial production of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) is a global threat to public health. ESBL resistance is most commonly hospital-acquired; however, infections acquired outside of hospital settings have raised concerns over the role of livestock and wildlife in the zoonotic spread of ESBL-producing bacteria. Only limited data are available on the circulation of ESBL-producing bacteria in animals. Here, we report ESBL-producing Escherichia coli in wild common vampire bats Desmodus rotundus and livestock near Lima, Peru. Molecular analyses revealed that most of this resistance resulted from the expression of blaCTX-M-15 genes carried by plasmids, which are disseminating worldwide in hospital settings and have also been observed in healthy children of Peru. Multilocus sequence typing showed a diverse pool of E. coli strains carrying this resist...

The extensive use and misuse of antibiotics in the livestock sector is one of the main drivers of the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. Although small-scale farms constitute most of the livestock production in low and middle-income countries, knowledge and use of antibiotics among these populations is sparse. We conducted 201 questionnaires to estimate the use and knowledge of antibiotics by small-scale farmers located in the coastal area of the Lima region of Peru. Our results show that farmers had a small number of livestock (e.g. average of 11 cows, 7 pigs and 19 chickens per farm) and 80 % earned less than minimum wage. More than half of farmers reported at least one episode of respiratory disease, diarrhea, mastitis, skin lesion or post-parturition infection in their animals during the previous year, and 40 % of these episodes were treated with antibiotics. Farmers r...

DGS and JAB were funded by a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and Royal Society [Grant 102507/Z/13/Z]. DGS was funded by a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship [217221/Z/19/Z]. CS, JAB, NF and DGS were also funded by a CONCYTEC-UK Embassy grant [No. 003-2016-FONDECYT]. JAB was funded by the National Fund for Scientific and Technological development of Chile [FONDECYT-Iniciación, grant number 11181017]. DF-C receives a doctoral fellowship from the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) [process number BCH 72170436]. NL is a research fellow of CNPq [312249/2017-9].