Pilot Project: Metagenomics to Monitor AMR

(Meta)genomics to monitor abundances and diversity of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes and strains circulating in poultry food chain in Nigeria

Project Summary

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria change and no longer respond to the therapeutic efficacy of some available antibiotics. AMR makes it difficult for physicians to effectively treat and manage some infectious diseases. It is one of the greatest threats to human health and food safety. We hypothesize that poultry is a reservoir for AMR gene and bacteria because antibiotics are incessantly used in such milieus. Thus, the public health risk of AMR in poultry is a fundamental knowledge gap which needs to be addressed in Nigeria. The impact of AMR on poultry food chain in terms of the evolution and spread of AMR genes and strains of public health risk is a fundamental knowledge gap which needs to be addressed in Nigeria. This pilot project will use (meta)genomics approaches to monitor the abundances and diversity of AMR genes and strains circulating in poultry milieus - with the overarching goal of unraveling their public health risk, establishing continuous monitoring capability and reduce the burden of AMR-related infectious disease burden in Nigeria. This study is expected to provide important genomic data to unravel the true state of AMR in the poultry food chain in Nigeria, to inform AMR trends in the region.

Project Aims

• To study the knowledge, attitude and behaviours on antibiotics usage and AMR among poultry farmers/workers in the food chain sector.
• To investigate the antibiogram and abundance of (priority) AMR strains circulating or contaminating the poultry food chain sector.
• To evaluate the diversity and abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) circulating in the poultry food chain system using (meta)genomics studies.

About the Principal Investigator

Chika Ejikeugwu, PhD

Principal Investigator

Senior Lecturer, ESUT, Nigeria

email: [email protected]

Chika Ejikeugwu, PhD is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology and Biotechnology at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (AvH) in Germany. Dr. Ejikeugwu founded Africa´s number one microbiology website, www.MicrobiologyClass.net, an online Microbiology website that provides scintillating notes and research updates to the microbiology community in Africa and around the globe. He has demonstrated leadership in the field of Microbiology, and has contributed to research development in the specific priority area of AMR, generating data with potentials to inform policies and programmes to mitigate the evolution and transmission of AMR pathogens and genes in Nigeria. His current CAMRA project will clarify the knowledge, attitude and behaviours on antibiotics use and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among poultry farmers with the overarching goal being to reveal the extent of contamination, diversity and abundances of AMR in the poultry food chain by targeting adaptive genes and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) conferring resistance to clinically relevant antibiotics.