Understanding and modulating the microbiome and resistome in animal hospital buildings.

• Applicant: Professorin Claudia Guldimann, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Veterinary Medical Science ; Medical Microbiology and Mycology, Hygiene, Molecular Infection Biology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 493314252

The World Health Organisation has defined a global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis, with antibiotic use in humans and food animals as important drivers of AMR. Hospitals can become reservoirs of AMR bacteria by harboring them long-term in niches like floor cracks, drains and sinks. Transfer from hospital surfaces to patients, mainly due to suboptimal hygiene, is well documented. AMR bacteria are hard to eliminate from building features and desperate measures such as replacing the plumbing are regularly taken to stop outbreaks in hospitals. In contrast to human clinics and food animals, there is much less data on AMR in companion animal clinics and no official monitoring or reporting. At the same time and in analogy to human hospitals, AMR poses a major challenge in companion animal clinics and harbors the risk of spillover to humans through animal contacts. This project seizes a unique research opportunity to study the dynamics of AMR in veterinary hospitals: two state-of-the-art companion animal clinics will move to new buildings in 2021/2022. We aim to i) understand the dynamics of the microbiome and resistome as these new buildings come into use and ii) apply microbial-based cleaning products (MBCP’s) as an innovative strategy to modulate the resident microbiome. The microbiomes (the sum of bacteria present in a sample) and resistomes (the sum of genes encoding AMR present in the microbiome) in both clinics will be monitored before and after the move to new buildings. High-risk areas for the transfer of AMR bacteria to patients will be defined and MBCPs will be evaluated for their capacity to prevent or reduce AMR in animal hospital microbiomes. The concept of hygiene is radically rethought with MBCPs. By applying spores of food-grade, apathogenic Bacillus species to hospital surfaces, trials in human hospitals have seen remarkable success in remodeling the microbiome towards less pathogenic, less AMR species. To our knowledge, this is the first project to apply MBCPs in companion animal clinics.Output from this work will provide much needed insight into the dynamics of animal clinic microbiomes / resistomes to help better understand risk factors for animal and human health. It will also provide data on the use of MBCP’s in animal clinics to answer critical questions: can they be safely and successfully applied to reduce AMR bacteria in the animal hospital environment? The resulting data will be an important contribution to inform science-driven decisions in the growing need to mitigate health care associated infections in humans and animals alike.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Belgium, USA
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Dr. Brandy Burgess; Dr. Noelle Noyes; Dr. Robin Temmerman