Conclusion
Our hypothesis that not only free-living predatory animals are involved
in the spread of resistance has definitely been confirmed by the results
of this research. Thus, the diet, the lifestyle associated with living
close to human settlements, and even the potential of using the same
food sources (rats) probably have a large impact on the emergence of a
high percentage of resistance among strains isolated from herbivores,
insectivores, or omnivores. Moreover, the large diversity of the studied
isolates and the possibility of carrying more than one MDR strain
indicate that the results obtained so far showing free-living animals as
reservoirs of drug resistance may be significantly underestimated, which
seems to be an alarming phenomenon. Furthermore, these MDR strains are
carriers of resistance genes, which are also commonly found in strains
from humans, farm animals, and pets.
We must also be aware that although E. coli is mainly a commensal
bacterium, some strains can cause infections. Our research indicates
that not only farm animals are a common reservoir for the ExPEC, ETEC,
and EHEC strains, which is a serious premise for the need to study not
only the spread of resistance genes but also virulence-associated genes
in E. coli strains isolated from many species of wild animals.
Funding sources : This research did not receive any specific
grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit
sectors.
Ethic statement: The authors confirm that the ethical policies
of the journal, as noted on the journal’s author guidelines page, have
been adhered to. No ethical approval was required