Evidence of Antimicrobial Resistance in Bats and Its Planetary Health Impact for Surveillance of Zoonotic Spillover Events: A Scoping Review

Popy Devnath, Nabil Karah, Jay P. Graham, Elizabeth S. Rose and Muhammad Asaduzzaman ()
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Popy Devnath: College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA
Nabil Karah: Department of Molecular Biology and Umeå Centre for Microbial Research, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden
Jay P. Graham: School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Elizabeth S. Rose: Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37203, USA
Muhammad Asaduzzaman: Department of Community Medicine and Global Health, Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, 450 Oslo, Norway

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 20, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other outbreaks, such as SARS and Ebola, bats are recognized as a critical species for mediating zoonotic infectious disease spillover events. While there is a growing concern of increased antimicrobial resistance (AMR) globally during this pandemic, knowledge of AMR circulating between bats and humans is limited. In this paper, we have reviewed the evidence of AMR in bats and discussed the planetary health aspect of AMR to elucidate how this is associated with the emergence, spread, and persistence of AMR at the human–animal interface. The presence of clinically significant resistant bacteria in bats and wildlife has important implications for zoonotic pandemic surveillance, disease transmission, and treatment modalities. We searched MEDLINE through PubMed and Google Scholar to retrieve relevant studies ( n = 38) that provided data on resistant bacteria in bats prior to 30 September 2022. There is substantial variability in the results from studies measuring the prevalence of AMR based on geographic location, bat types, and time. We found all major groups of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria in bats, which are resistant to commonly used antibiotics. The most alarming issue is that recent studies have increasingly identified clinically significant multi-drug resistant bacteria such as Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), ESBL producing, and Colistin resistant Enterobacterales in samples from bats. This evidence of superbugs abundant in both humans and wild mammals, such as bats, could facilitate a greater understanding of which specific pathways of exposure should be targeted. We believe that these data will also facilitate future pandemic preparedness as well as global AMR containment during pandemic events and beyond.

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance (AMR); bats; zoonotic spillover; planetary health; one health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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