Welcome to the INART international project

Intervention of antimicrobial resistance transfer into the food chain

The INART main objectives:

Identify intervention strategies to reduce or remove the transfer of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) priority pathogens and AMR plasmids at the start of the food chain. Understand how manure treatments change the plasmid mediated resistome in the manure, on the plants and in the soil after manure application. Identify the microbiome changes in plants and soil amended with manure and how manure treatment can mitigate the transfer of AMR pathogenic bacteria at the start of the food chain.

The INART project is implemented as part of the international program JPI-EC-AMR “Comparison of prevention, control and intervention strategies for AMR infections through multidisciplinary studies, including One Health approaches” . The call for proposal: Comparison of prevention, control, and intervention strategies for AMR infections through multidisciplinary studies, including One Health approaches. JPI-EC-AMR is a programme implemented by JPI AMR (Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance), an initiative which strives to support research on antimicrobial resistance.

Abstract of the project

Soil and water have been identified as reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the food chain as the most likely mode of AMR transfer into human an in which food plants grow and is a source of AMR. We hypothesise that pre-treatment of manure will reduce and remove the abundance and diversity of AMR genes and pathogenic bacteria of high priority from entering the food chain. Alleviating AMR elements from entering the food chain will reduce the transfer and uptake of mobile AMR genes and pathogens by human and animals. This project will focus on chicken and pig manure as both have been demonstrated to carry a wide variety and abundance of mobile AMR genes of clinical relevance.

Our intervention is to pre-treat the manure in order to reduce or remove the burden of AMR in the manure prior to reuse as fertiliser. The microbiomes of chicken and pig manure differ, but the AMR genes and mobile elements overlap.

Our study will investigate if the same pre-treatments will reduce or remove AMR prior to application and if these reductions or removal are maintained on the food plants or grass, and in the soil. We will also identify the main microbiome changes mediated by the intervention and analyse if these bacterial changes are important in the mitigation of AMR. Reducing or removing the threat of AMR at the start of the food chain will reduce the potential for selection and transfer of such AMR genes and pathogens further along the food chain. By stopping or reducing the continuous transfer of AMR genes and mobile elements along the food chain we will reduce the burden of AMR in pathogenic bacteria.

Universities and Institutes of Major Researchers participating in the project
teagasc
Maynooth university
Western
Uniwersytet Warszawski
volcani
Hochschule
University of Zurich