Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the extend to which the presence of antibiotic resistant organisms in the human gut is the result of horizontal gene transmission from bacteria of farm animal origin, notwithstanding the strains of bacteria concerned.

The pathways through which antibiotic resistance genes can be transferred between bacteria of any origin or strain are complex.

The Department continues to carry out research and surveillance to better assess the potential for, and the frequency of, spread of antibiotic resistance genes between bacteria, including between those of human and animal origin. Examples of recently commissioned or completed projects include:

• Potential risk to human and animal health from the emergence and spread of Beta-lactamase resistance in Great Britain.
• Molecular signature of antibiotic resistance in pigs as a potential source of antibiotic resistance in humans.
• Characterisation of ESBL/Amp C/ Carbapenam resistant E.coli from pigs and poultry to identify resistance genes, circulating plasmids and fitness attributes.

Final reports from completed projects are published via GOV.UK. Results from surveillance of resistance in key zoonotic bacteria are published annually in the Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance and Sales Surveillance report.