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This study will look at whether wide dissemination of antibiotic resistant strains is also important in Campylobacter jejuni and E. coli in the bovine intestine. In addition, this study will determine whether antibiotic resistant E. coli can be competitively displaced by non-antibiotic resistant strains. These studies will provide basic information about the role of clonal dissemination in the epidemiology of antibiotic resistance on cattle farms, and so aid risk assessment of commensal flora with antibiotic resistance and prediction of effective interventions to reduce antibiotic resistance frequency.
There is an increasing concern that antibiotic resistance in both pathogenic bacteria and in the normal flora present a risk to the public health, and reduction in the degree of antibiotic resistance is an important public health goal.The antibiotic resistant flora that appear after antibiotic exposure of cattle and other food animals may be 'new' antibiotic resistant strains originating on the farm, or may be pre-adapted strains that originated elsewhere and were transferred to the farm by animals, feed, water, wildlife, humans, or other mechanisms. The origin is important, since different origins require different control measures. For Salmonella typhimurium,wide dissemination of antibiotic resistant strains is the predominant process.