ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE AN INTERFACE BETWEEN ANIMAL AND HUMAN DISEASES

Abstract

In recent years, concerns about the use of antimicrobial products in food-producing animals have focused on human food safety because foods of animal origin are sometimes identified as the vehicles of food borne disease in humans and, therefore, also vehicles of  resistant food borne pathogens and resistant genetic material. The major zoonotic pathogens of concern for the development of  antimicrobial resistance are Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter jejuni. A broad spectrum of antimicrobials are in use in animals One such antimicrobial is Silver, used to treat a various infections . The current wide spread and uncontrolled use of silver may result in more bacteria developing resistance, analogous to the emergence of antibiotic and biocide resistant bacteria. This could be very detrimental to many industrial and medicinal properties that depend on the microbial properties of silver. In the present study, in order to gain an insight into bacterial resistance to silver the clinical isolates of Salmonella typhimurium were plasmid cured, the antibiotic sensitivity was tested in order to find out whether the strains were drug resistant; the Plasmid cured bacterial strains were then grown in nutrient broth containing silver nitrate, in order to determine silver resistance. To identify the protein encoded by this silver resistance determinant, a whole cell lysate was made and an SDS-PAGE was carried out. Plasmid was cured .The results of the study showed that silver resistance is plasmid encoded. A low molecular weight protein found in wild strains was found missing in the plasmid cured strains and possibly could play role in silver resistance.