Antimicrobials are valuable therapeutics whose efficacy is seriously compromised by the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. The provision of antibiotics to food animals encompasses a wide variety of nontherapeutic purposes that include growth promotion. The concern over resistance emergence and spread to people by nontherapeutic use of antimicrobials has led to conflicted practices and opinions. Considerable evidence supported the removal of nontherapeutic antimicrobials (NTAs) in Europe, based on the "precautionary principle." Still, concrete scientific evidence of the favorable versus unfavorable consequences of NTAs is not clear to all stakeholders. Substantial data show elevated antibiotic resistance in bacteria associated with animals fed NTAs and their food products. This resistance spreads to other animals and humans-directly by contact and indirectly via the food chain, water, air, and manured and sludge-fertilized soils. Modern genetic techniques are making advances in deciphering the ecological impact of NTAs, but modeling efforts are thwarted by deficits in key knowledge of microbial and antibiotic loads at each stage of the transmission chain. Still, the substantial and expanding volume of evidence reporting animal-to-human spread of resistant bacteria, including that arising from use of NTAs, supports eliminating NTA use in order to reduce the growing environmental load of resistance genes.

Food Animals and Antimicrobials: Impacts on Human Health

Molecular Mechanisms of Antibacterial Multidrug Resistance

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(06)68853-3.pdf

Emergence and resurgence of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as a public-health threat

The first vancomycin-resistant clinical isolates of Enterococcus species were reported in Europe in 1988. Similar strains were later detected in hospitals on the East Coast of the United States. Since then, vancomycin-resistant enterococci have spread with unexpected rapidity and are now encountered in hospitals in most countries. This article reviews the mode of action and the mechanism of bacterial resistance to glycopeptides, as exemplified by the VanA type, which is mediated by transposon Tn1546 and is widely spread in enterococci. The diversity, regulation, evolution, and recent dissemination of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus are then discussed.

Vancomycin resistance in gram-positive cocci.

Aspergillus niger is one of the most important microorganisms used in biotechnology. It has been in use already for many decades to produce extracellular (food) enzymes and citric acid. In fact, citric acid and many A. niger enzymes are considered GRAS by the United States Food and Drug Administration. In addition, A. niger is used for biotransformations and waste treatment. In the last two decades, A. niger has been developed as an important transformation host to over-express food enzymes. Being pre-dated by older names, the name A. niger has been conserved for economical and information retrieval reasons and there is a taxonomical consensus based on molecular data that the only other common species closely related to A. niger in the Aspergillus series Nigri is A. tubingensis. A. niger, like other filamentous fungi, should be treated carefully to avoid the formation of spore dust. However, compared with other filamentous fungi, it does not stand out as a particular problem concerning allergy or mycopathology. A few medical cases, e.g. lung infections, have been reported, but always in severely immunocompromised patients. In tropical areas, ear infections (otomycosis) do occur due to A. niger invasion of the outer ear canal but this may be caused by mechanical damage of the skin barrier. A. niger strains produce a series of secondary metabolites, but it is only ochratoxin A that can be regarded as a mycotoxin in the strict sense of the word. Only 3-10% of the strains examined for ochratoxin A production have tested positive under favourable conditions. New and unknown isolates should be checked for ochratoxin A production before they are developed as production organisms. It is concluded, with these restrictions, that A. niger is a safe production organism.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00253-002-1032-6.pdf

On the safety of Aspergillus niger - a review

Production of l _DOPA by the activity of tyrosinase from a strain of Aspergillus terreus 104 was investigated. Effects of substrate ( l -tyrosine) concentrations, its mode of feeding to the assay mixture and also the effects of l -ascorbic acid and other antioxidants on the production rate of l -DOPA were studied. The parameters for optimal production of l -DOPA with a maximum conversion of 85% of 0.1% l -tyrosine were determined.

Production of L-dopa by Aspergillus terreus.

A catabolite-derepressed mutant strain of Aspergillus terreus NA-170 was isolated by multi-step mutagenesis. The mutant produced an appreciable yield of glucoamylase in the culture medium. The enzyme was purified and was shown to be homogeneous. It hydrolysed successive glucose residues from the non-reducing end of starch molecules. The purified enzyme had an optimum pH of 5·0 and was stable over the pH range 3·0–7·0. It was highly active over a broad temperature range, 30–75°C, with optimal activity at 60°C. The molecular weight was 70 000 as determined by Sephadex G-200 filtration. The enzyme showed a decrease in Km values with increasing chain length of the substrate molecule.

Purification and characterization of glucoamylase of Aspergillus terreus NA‐170 mutant

Aspergillus niger strain CGU 87 was treated with UV radiation and some auxotrophic mutants were obtained. These mutants were less productive than CGU 87, which produced an average of 7.4% citric acid. All possible crosses in pair wise combinations were carried out between these auxotrophs, and three heterokaryons were synthesised. Finally, one heterozygous diploid was isolated from each of them. These heterokaryons and diploids showed improved productivity when compared with their component parents, but except in one diploid D5, all others produced less citric acid than CGU 87. The yield of D5 exceeded that of CGU 87 by 1.2 times and it produced 9% citric acid. This is a significant improvement and the increased productivity seems to be the result of successful adaptation of D5 to its fermentation environment.

Improved production of citric acid by a diploid strain of Aspergillus niger.

A strain of Aspergillus terreus 4 was found to show extracellular amylolytic activity and the amylase was identified as glucoamylase enzyme. The optimum temperature for the enzyme activity was 60% and it was stable at this temperature for 1 h. The enzyme was optimally active at pH 5.0 and stable between pH 3.0-8.0. Km values of glucoamylase for soluble starch, amylose and amylopectin were 5.9 mg/ml, 4.8 mg/ml and 2.6 mg/ml respectively.

Characterization of glucoamylase from Aspergillus terreus 4

A catabolite derepressed mutant of a glucoamylolytic strain ofAspergillusterreus 4 produced 1.8 times more glucoamylase than its parent; the crude enzyme preparation appreciably degraded raw starchy materials like wheat, rice, potato and barley.

Arati Das

Papers

Production of L-dopa by Aspergillus terreus.

Purification and characterization of glucoamylase of Aspergillus terreus NA‐170 mutant

Improved production of citric acid by a diploid strain of Aspergillus niger.

Characterization of glucoamylase from Aspergillus terreus 4

Production of glucoamylase by 2-deoxy-D-glucose resistant mutant of Aspergillus terreus 4