Assessment of health risk of antibiotics resistance genes from human disturbed habitat to wild animals: Metagenomic insights into availability and functional changes of gut microbiome.

Not all antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) pose an ecological risk to their host animals. A standard should be developed to study which types of ARGs posed an ecological risk to wild animals under human disturbances (HDs). In this study, the golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) were used as sentinel species. According to the animals-associated enrichment, mobility, and pathogenicity, the ARGs in habitat of sentinel species were divided into four levels. If the mobile and pathogenic ARGs that could be collinear with the metagenome-assembled genome (MAGs) in the gut of the sentinel species, the ARGs were defined as Rank I ARGs and they were considered to have ecological risk to sentinel species. Functional genes in the MAGs that collinear with the Rank I ARGs were used to predict the health risks of sentinel species. The ecological risk to sentinel species was present in 0.158 % of the ARGs-contigs in the habitat. Cultivation and villages, but not grazing, agriculture and ecotourism, increased the ecological risk of the ARGs to wild animals, The ability of gut microbiome to acquire mobile and pathogenic ARGs increased, as did the collinear functional genes, and the health risks of the wild animals also enhanced by the disturbances of cultivation and villages. Cultivation and villages increased the nutrient content of the soil, and they had a positive effect on the ecological risk of Rank I ARGs by affecting the mobile genetic elements (MGEs), microbiome and the resistant group in the habitat, which was why the cultivation and villages increased the health risks of wild animals. We proposed that cultivation and living should be controlled, while grazing, agriculture and ecotourism could be developed in nature reserves of wild animals, but the nutrients in the wild animals' habitat should be monitored.

Effects of antibiotic resistance genes on health risks of rivers in habitat of wild animals under human disturbance - based on analysis of antibiotic resistance genes and virulence factors in microbes of river sediments.

Studying the ecological risk of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) to wild animals from human disturbance (HD) is an important aspect of "One Health". The highest risk level of ARGs is reflected in pathogenic antibiotic-resistant bacteria (PARBs). Metagenomics was used to analyze the characteristics of PARBs in river sediments. Then, the total contribution of ARGs and virulence factors (VFs) were assessed to determine the health risk of PARBs to the rivers. Results showed that HD increased the diversity and total relative abundance of ARG groups, as well as increased the kinds of PARBs, their total relative abundance, and their gene numbers of ARGs and VFs. The total health risks of PARBs in wild habitat group (CK group), agriculture group (WA group), grazing group (WG group), and domestic sewage group (WS group) were 0.067 × 10-3, -1.55 × 10-3, 87.93 × 10-3, and 153.53 × 10-3, respectively. Grazing and domestic sewage increased the health risk of PARBs. However, agriculture did not increase the total health risk of the rivers, but agriculture also introduced new pathogenic mechanisms and increased the range of drug resistance. More serious was the increased transfer risk of ARGs in the PARBs from the rivers to wild animals under agriculture and grazing. If the ARGs in the PARBs are transferred from the rivers under HD to wild animals, then wild animals may face severe challenges of acquiring new pathogenic mechanisms and developing resistance to antibiotics. Further analysis showed that the total phosphorus (TP) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) were related to the risk of ARGs. Therefore, controlling human emissions of TP and DON could reduce the health risk of rivers.