Editor's Choice - IJAA

Every month, Editor Jean-Marc Rolain and his Scientific Assistant, Sophie Baron, choose one or two articles to highlight as Editor's Choice in the International Journal of Antmicrobial Agents (IJAA).

There are two selected for the November issue.

1. Extended spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli from extraintestinal infections in humans and from food-producing animals, in Italy: a “One Health” study (Giufre et al)

Editor's comment:
"This paper highlights the concept of One Health for transmission of antibiotic resistance genes between animals and humans. Using a set of 480 human isolates and 445 animal isolates of E. coli collected in Italy they found a large prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes among different ST types in those strains. Although different ST were found between human and animal isolates, antibiotic resistance genes were the same likely suggesting that those genes can spread in different ecosystems and that resistance is linked to the transmission of genes between bacterial communities and not to transmission of specific bacterial clones."

2. Longitudinal Genomic Characterization of Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) Reveals Changing Pattern of CPEs Isolated in Hong Kong Hospitals (Zhu et al)

Editor's comment:
"This work is interesting because it shows during a longitudinal genomic characterization of carbapenemase producing bacteria in Hong Kong during a 7-year period that carbapenemase genes that circulate in Hong Kong are diverse and that the epidemiology has changed because increase of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae is different since 2015. This work demonstrates that the evolution of an epidemic situation to an endemic situation in a given country could be due to specific clones and/or spread of specific mobile genetic elements within bacterial communities. Moreover, it shows that some antibiotic resistance may become predominant that raises the question of the fitness and the dynamic of certain genes."