Occupational Exposure and Health Risk from Dairy Microbiome and Resistome to Dairy Farm Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dantas G ; Shukla SK
• Description:
  Globally, half a billion people are employed in animal agriculture and are directly exposed to zoonotic microorganisms. However, the extent to which such exposures affect the resident human microbiomes remain unknown. Here, we address the above gap in knowledge by conducting an in-depth investigation of the nasal and gut microbiomes of dairy farmers and their cows. To determine the microbial signatures associated with livestock farming, we included in our investigation a comparator cohort of age-, sex-, and ZIP code-matched people with no occupational exposures to farm animals. Lastly, our sampling was longitudinal in nature, covering five seasons; in all, we analyzed 712 fecal and 726 nasal samples from 66 farmers, 60 nonfarmers, and 166 cows, representing, to our knowledge, the most comprehensive study and dataset of its kind. We applied a combination of both 16S and shotgun metagenomic sequencing to this extensive sample set to demonstrate the acquisition of cow-associated microbes by farmers, with this acquisition being most apparent in the nasal ecosystem. To profile gut resistomes, we first employed functional metagenomic selections to identify novel and known antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) that are amenable to horizontal gene transfer. We identified 2,049 functionally screened ARGs, more than half originating from cows and most not present in the existing ARG databases. By combining the ARGs from our functional screens with the reference genes from existing ARG catalogues, we generated a reference set with 31,333 sequences, which, to our knowledge, is the largest ARG dataset in existence. Using this reference set, we show that the acquired livestock microbes introduce encoded ARGs into the farmer gut, where the genes subsequently disseminate to new bacterial hosts via mobile genetic elements. In one notable example, we find a resistance-encoding mobile cassette that is enriched in the cow gut but has disseminated to resident microbes of the farmer gut; notably, this same cassette is also found in clinical bacterial isolates reported elsewhere, directly tying the selection for antimicrobial resistance in farm animals to human health. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Anti-Bacterial Agents Farmers Livestock Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Animal-related Diseases Animal Husbandry Workers Antibiotics Antimicrobial Resistance Bacterial Infections Farm Workers Gastrointestinal System Genomics Livestock Industry
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  Missouri ; OSHA Region 7
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-14
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20069684
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, R01-OH-011578, 2023 Nov; :1-14
• Email:
  dantas@wustl.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  Washington University, Saint Louis
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20180901
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20220831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6a8b1c5774ceae369e66040488cbe310ac65fd3099733652092cf3895344452a279c44125c80e3558421c465b292e3c303ffca3d6c29990b06282a63601fa6c8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219253/cdc_219253_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 219.45 KB ]