ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Antibiotic Resistance and New Antimicrobial drugs
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1627782
This article is part of the Research TopicPerspectives in Clinical Microbiology for Combating Multi-drug Resistant Bacterial Infections: 2024/2025View all 8 articles
Impact of Antibiotic Choice on Resistance Development and the Immune Response in experimentally Escherichia coli-infected Piglets
Provisionally accepted
- 1Norwegian Private Veterinary Services, PrivateVET Small Animal Clinic, Hammerfest, Norway
- 2Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås., Norway
- 3Department of Clinical Medicine, Clinical Bioinformatics Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences,, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Troms, Norway
- 4Xenovea Ltd., Szeged, Hungary
- 5Department of Clinical Medicine, Clinical Bioinformatics Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Troms, Norway
- 6Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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The rapid mobility of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) represents a growing global One Health concern. However, further in vivo studies are needed to better understand ARG dissemination in actual clinical settings. To this end, a piglet model of enteric colibacillosis (the causative bacterium carrying an R-plasmid) was used to track the expression of genes involved in the bacterial SOS response, plasmid transfer, and porcine immune responses under both effective and ineffective antibiotic treatments. Analysis of gut samples showed a significant reduction (p < 0.05) in the expression of R-plasmid transfer genes in groups receiving effective enrofloxacin, with or without probiotics or meloxicam. Conversely, ineffective tetracycline and sub-inhibitory enrofloxacin resulted in a significant increase (p < 0.05) in the expression of bacterial SOS response and R-plasmid transfer genes. Inflammatory gene expression was upregulated in the groups receiving ineffective antimicrobial treatment, whereas anti-inflammatory cytokines exhibited the opposite trend in effectively treated piglets. These findings highlight the importance of selecting the correct antibiotic and administering it at an effective dosage. The improper use of antibiotics or their subinhibitory administration can have fatal consequences and accelerate the spread of ARGs.
Keywords: ETEC, Piglet, R-plasmid, innate immunity, Gut Microbiota, antibiotic resistance
Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 10 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cantas, Fenton, Bato, Paulssen and Sørum. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Leon Cantas, Norwegian Private Veterinary Services, PrivateVET Small Animal Clinic, Hammerfest, Norway
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