ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. One Health
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1654200
Prevalence and Antimicrobial Drug Resistance of Gram-Negative Bacteria in Dairy Feed and Water: A One Health Concern
Provisionally accepted
Safia Arbab1
Hanif Ullah2*
Weiwei Wang1
Abdul Qadeer3
Abdullah A Aseeri4Fuad M Alzahrani5
Khalid Alzahrani5
Khalaf F Alsharif5
Jiyu Zhang1- 1Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Lanzhou, China
- 2West China School of Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- 3Central South University, Changsha, China
- 4King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
- 5Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Dairy animals are continually at risk of infection due to exposure to contaminated environments. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli, along with their antimicrobial resistance patterns, in animal feed and water samples collected from dairy farms, with direct implications for the One Health framework. A total of 160 samples, comprising 98 feed and 49 water samples, were collected and analyzed, as both serve as potential reservoirs for pathogen dissemination. Of the 144 samples analyzed, 76 (51.7%) tested positive for E. coli and 68 (46.3%) for Salmonella spp. Isolates were identified through Gram staining, motility, and endospore staining, and confirmed with standard biochemical tests (IMViC). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing showed the highest susceptibility of E. coli to ampicillin, cefotaxime, and ciprofloxacin (19%), while Salmonella spp. showed the highest susceptibility to cefpodoxime and ampicillin (17%). MARI values of 6 (7.8%) for E. coli and 4 (5.8%) for Salmonella spp. exceeded the 0.2 threshold, indicating considerable antibiotic exposure and a public health concern. The average ± SD inhibition zones were (9.87 ± 6.16) for E. coli and (8.5 ± 5.34) for Salmonella spp., with minimal differences observed. These comparable resistance profiles underscore the risk of resistant bacteria spreading across animal, human, and environmental domains, emphasizing the need for integrated farm-level monitoring, prudent antibiotic use, and coordinated stewardship strategies within the One Health framework.
Keywords: antimicrobial resistance, Antibiotic resistance index, One Health, Farm-level surveillance, Hygiene practices, regulatory measures
Received: 14 Jul 2025; Accepted: 25 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Arbab, Ullah, Wang, Qadeer, Aseeri, Alzahrani, Alzahrani, Alsharif and Zhang. 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: Hanif Ullah, West China School of Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.