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...

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].