Study links resistant Salmonella in houbara bustard to UAE broilers

A new Frontiers in Veterinary Science study describes a multidrug-resistant, mcr-1.1-positive Salmonella Kentucky ST198 isolate recovered from a captive Asian houbara bustard in the United Arab Emirates, and genomic analysis suggests it is closely related to strains previously identified in UAE broiler poultry. The isolate, recovered from yolk sac samples at post-mortem, was resistant to 17 antimicrobials and carried 21 resistance determinants, including mcr-1.1, a plasmid-mediated colistin resistance gene. The authors found the closest poultry-linked strains differed by just 31 to 33 SNPs, supporting the possibility of relatively recent shared ancestry and spillover at the wildlife-poultry interface. (frontiersin.org)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this report adds to evidence that high-risk antimicrobial-resistant clones can move beyond food-animal systems into captive wildlife populations. That matters not only for avian and wildlife medicine, but also for infection control, necropsy workflows, antimicrobial stewardship, and facility biosecurity where captive breeding, rehabilitation, or mixed animal supply chains may create indirect contact with poultry-associated pathogens. The broader concern is that Salmonella Kentucky ST198 has long been recognized as an internationally important resistant lineage linked to poultry, while prior work in UAE broiler farms has already documented widespread carriage of mobile mcr plasmids among Enterobacterales. (wwwnc.cdc.gov)

What to watch: Expect follow-up attention on integrated genomic surveillance, stronger separation between wildlife and poultry inputs, and whether similar resistant clones are found in other captive avian species in the region. (frontiersin.org)