Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week 2024 II – Aquaculture
The growth of the aquaculture industry coupled with environmental challenges like the climate change will unavoidably involve the implementation of innovative, preventive, and sustainable health related management strategies. IRTA’s Aquaculture program research strategies in this line, merge and combine several research approaches including, not only vaccine development and immunomodulation through functional aquafeeds, but also the identification of the antibiotic resistance genes present in the microbiome of cultured organisms.
Certainly, the use of antibiotic alternatives to promote health, directly reduces antibiotic use; thereby, contributing to reduce the resistant bacterial population and helping to limit the dissemination of resistance in different compartments of the environment. In this line, IRTA-Aquaculture leads SPARE-SEA project which is directed towards identifying the antibiotic resistance genes present in the microbiome of farmed oysters and the related environmental compartments that surround oyster growing regions in four regions of coastal Europe. The project has a One Health focus with the aim to identify potential risks of these endemic antibiotic resistances, linked to the generalized use of antibiotic during the first stages of oyster production in hatcheries, from spilling over from the oyster habitat to humans, and to understand what the drivers for selection of antibiotic resistance among the metagenomes of the oyster might be growing habitats.
Silvia Torrecillas
