Antimicrobial Resistance in Wildlife in Guadeloupe (French West Indies): Distribution of a Singlebla(CTX-M-1)/IncI1/ST3 Plasmid Among Humans and Wild Animals

Limited data are available on the contribution of wildlife to the spread of antibacterial resistance. We determined the prevalence of resistance to antibiotics inEscherichia coliisolates collected from wild animals in 2013 and 2014 and the genetic basis for resistance to third-generation cephalosporin in Guadeloupe. We recovered 52 antibiotic-resistant (AR)E. colistrains from 48 of the 884 (5.4%) wild animals tested (46 iguanas, 181 birds, 289 anoles, and 368 rodents at 163 sampling sites). Rodents had higher rates of carriage (n= 38, 10.3%) than reptiles and birds (2.4% and 1.1%, respectively,p99% nucleotide identity) to ESBL-carrying plasmids found in several countries in Europe and in Australia. Although the prevalence of ESBL-producingE. coliisolates was very low in wild animals, it is of concern that the well-conserved IncI1 plasmid-carryingbla(CTX-M-1)is widespread and occurs in variousE. colistrains from animals and humans