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Association between the Use of Macrolides in Food-Producing Animals and Mycoplasma pneumoniae Macrolide Resistance: A Global Ecological Analysis

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12 April 2024

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17 April 2024

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Abstract
In the current study we test the hypothesis that the consumption of macrolides in food-animals is positively associated with the prevalence of macrolide resistance in M. pneumoniae at a country-level. The prevalence of M. pneumoniae macrolide resistance was positively associated with the consumption of macrolides for both food animals (Rho = 0.66; P=0.007) and humans (Rho = 0.54; P=0.040). Linear regression analysis revealed that macrolide consumption in food animals but not humans was borderline significantly associated with macrolide resistance (coef. 5547 [95% CI -596-11691] and coef. 0.006 [95% CI -0.008-0.020], respectively).
Keywords: 
Subject: Medicine and Pharmacology  -   Internal Medicine

Introduction

It is well known that macrolide resistance in Mycoplasma pneumoniae is primarily due to point mutations in domain V of the 23SrRNA gene at positions 2958,2059 and 2611 [1]. What is less clear is what underpins the global variations in macrolide resistance in Mycoplasma genitalium? Various studies have clearly established that exposure to macrolides is a primary driver of macrolide resistance in a number of bacterial species including the related species, Mycoplasma genitalium [2,3,4,5,6]. This has included ecological type studies that have established that population-level consumption of macrolides is positively associated with the prevalence of macrolide resistance in a number of these species [4,5,7].
Macrolide consumption in humans may, however, not be the only driver of macrolide resistance. This is evident if we consider the explosive emergence of macrolide resistance in various bacterial species in Asia, particularly in China. Despite relatively low population-level macrolide consumption in China, the prevalence of macrolide resistance among Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates was 74% in 2001 and increased to 96% by 2009. Similarly, a high prevalence of macrolide resistance has been found in other bacteria, including Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Mycoplasma genitalium, Treponema pallidum, and group B streptococci [8,9,10]. Macrolide consumption in China in the year 2000 was less than 20% of the median consumption in European countries with available data [11,12].
One alternative source of macrolide exposure could be the low doses of macrolides that are allowed in food. Previous research has shown that very low concentrations of antimicrobials can select for AMR, with the minimum selection concentration (MSC) being the lowest concentration of an antimicrobial that can select for AMR [13]. For example, the Escherichia coli ciprofloxacin MSC has been found to be approximately 240-fold lower than the MIC, and close to concentrations of quinolones detected in food residues in countries with high consumption of quinolones in food-animals [13]. Ecological studies have also found a positive association at country level between quinolone use in food animals and ciprofloxacin resistance in a number of gram-negative bacteria [14].
Only a single MSC has been experimentally established for macrolides. This is the erythromycin MSC for Escherichia coli which was found to be <0.2 µg/mg [13,15]. Country-level ecological studies in Europe have found that there is a positive association between macrolide resistance in Campylobacter spp. in humans and macrolide use in animal husbandry [16]. Likewise, a systematic review found that interventions to limit macrolide use in food animals resulted in a decline of macrolide resistance in both humans and animals [17]. A single study found a positive correlation between the intensity of use of macrolides for food producing animals and the prevalence of macrolide resistance in S. pneumoniae [18].
In the current study we test the hypothesis that the consumption of macrolides in food-animals is positively associated with the prevalence of macrolide resistance in M. pneumoniae at a country-level.

Methods

Data

Prevalence of Macrolide Resistance

The prevalence of macrolide resistance by country for M. pneumoniae was obtained from a systematic review of the topic. Where countries were represented by multiple studies we used the median prevalence of resistance and we used the median year of all the studies for the year that this resistance estimate was obtained from.

Macrolide use in Food-Producing Animals

Country-level consumption of macrolides for the purposes of animal food production in the year 2013 was extracted from a systematic review that was performed by Van Boeckel et al. [19]. For 38 countries in the year 2013, Van Boeckel et al. estimated the volume of antimicrobials (in kilograms) consumed for each class of antimicrobial. They included four different categories of animals in this data: pigs, cattle, chickens and small ruminants. They then calculated for the year 2013, the number of kilograms of macrolides used in animal food production/population correction unit (PCU - a kilogram of animal product). The total tonnage of food producing animals produced per year per country was obtained from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates. (http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/?#data/). This data was obtained for the year 2013.

Macrolide Consumption in Humans

National macrolide drug consumption was obtained from IQVIA. The data for the year prior to the year used for macrolide resistance prevalence estimates was used. IQVIA uses national sample surveys to obtain this data. IQVIA reports these antimicrobial consumption estimates as the number of defined daily doses (a dose is classified as a pill, capsule, or ampoule) per 1000 population per year [12].

Statistical Analyses

We assessed the association between country-level macrolide resistance in M. pneumoniae and macrolide consumption using Spearman’s correlation. Linear regression analysis was used to assess the association of macrolide consumption in both humans and food animals and macrolide resistance in M. pneumoniae. Statistical analyses were conducted using Stata v16.1 (StataCorp, LLC College Station, Texas).

Results

Data for the prevalence of M. pneumoniae macrolide resistance was available from 22 countries. Of these 22 countries, concomitant data was available for macrolide consumption for food animals and humans for 15 countries (Table 1).
The prevalence of M. pneumoniae macrolide resistance was positively associated with the consumption of macrolides for both food animals (Rho = 0.66; P=0.007) and humans (Rho = 0.54; P=0.040; Figure 1). Linear regression analysis revealed that macrolide consumption in food animals but not humans was borderline significantly associated with macrolide resistance (coef. 5547 [95% CI -596-11691] and coef. 0.006 [95% CI -0.008-0.020], respectively).

Discussion

A positive association was found between both macrolide consumption in food animals and humans and the prevalence of macrolide resistance in M. pneumoniae. In multivariate testing the association between macrolides used for animals was stronger than those used for humans and macrolide resistance. This stronger association was driven to a large extent by China which had a high prevalence of macrolide resistance, high consumption in food animals but low consumption in humans.
We did not however control for a large number of other variables which may have confounded our analyses [20]. The sample size for the study was limited. We did not adjust for the differences in study methodology between countries in sample collection and determination of macrolide resistance.The study is also ecological and thus susceptible to the ecological inference fallacy.
These findings do however suggest that macrolides used for food animals may play a role in macrolide resistance in M. pneumoniae. These findings build on the similar findings of those found for S. pneumoniae [18]. They suggest the need for further experimental work to ascertain if the consumption of concentrations of macrolides detected in food could induce macrolide resistance in bacteria such as M. pneumoniae.

Funding

Nil.

Acknowledgements

Nil.

Consent for Publication

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statements

The data is available from the sources described in the methods.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares that he has no competing interests.

References

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Preprints 103814 g001
Figure 1. Scatter plots of the association between macrolide resistance in M. pneumoniae (%) and A) macrolide consumption in humans (DDD) and B) macrolide consumption in food animals (kg/PCU).
Figure 1. Scatter plots of the association between macrolide resistance in M. pneumoniae (%) and A) macrolide consumption in humans (DDD) and B) macrolide consumption in food animals (kg/PCU).
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Table 1. National prevalence of resistance to macrolides in Mycoplasma pneumoniae, consumption of macrolides in food animals (kilograms of macrolides used in animal food production/PCU) and macrolide consumption in humans (defined daily doses/1000 inhabitants per year, DID).
Table 1. National prevalence of resistance to macrolides in Mycoplasma pneumoniae, consumption of macrolides in food animals (kilograms of macrolides used in animal food production/PCU) and macrolide consumption in humans (defined daily doses/1000 inhabitants per year, DID).
Country Year of macrolide resistance estimate Macrolide resistance in M. pneumoniae Macrolide consumption in food animals (kg/PCU) Macrolide consumption in humans (DID)
Australia 2014 3.3 .0030558 1318
Canada 2013 12 .0048947 1431
China 2014 81 .0067121 665
Colombia 2018 0 . .
Cuba 2017 19 . .
Denmark 2012 2 .0024353 1000
Finland 2019 0 .0001106 898
France 2007 1.7 .0008601 1660
Germany 2015 2 .0017334 935
Iran 2017 25 . .
Israel 2011 30 . .
Italy 2015 24 .0028562 1519
Japan 2013 53 .0008748 2684
Russia 2020 1 . .
Singapore 2017 13 . .
Slovenia 2015 .5 .0000965 591
South Korea 2017 32 .0013214 3367
Spain 2020 8 .0055277 2050
Switzerland 2014 .5 .0003538 522
Thailand 2017 80 . .
UK 2013 7 .000727 2777
USA 2015 8 .0026729 2281
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