Patrícia Antunes

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Porto

Cationic biocides (CBs), such as quaternary ammonium compounds and biguanides, are critical for controlling the spread of bacterial pathogens like Enterococcus spp., a leading cause of multidrug-resistant healthcare-associated infections. The widespread use of CBs in recent decades has prompted concerns about the potential emergence of Enterococcus...

Background The pet industry is expanding worldwide, particularly raw meat-based diets (RMBDs). There are concerns regarding the safety of RMBDs, especially their potential to spread clinically relevant antibiotic-resistant bacteria or zoonotic pathogens. Aim We aimed to investigate whether dog food, including RMBD, commercially available in Portug...

The rise of antibiotic resistance in the food chain is influenced by the use of antimicrobial agents, such as antibiotics, metals, and biocides, throughout the entire farm-to-fork continuum. Besides, non-clinical reservoirs potentially contribute to the transmission of critical pathogens such as multidrug-resistant (MDR) Klebsiella pneumoniae. Howe...

The rise of antibiotic resistance in the food chain is influenced by the use of antimicrobial agents, such as antibiotics, metals, and biocides, throughout the entire farm-to-fork continuum. Besides, non-clinical reservoirs potentially contribute to the transmission of critical pathogens such as multidrug-resistant (MDR) Klebsiella pneumoniae . How...

Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) have been extensively used in the community, healthcare facilities, and food chain, in concentrations between 20 and 30,000 mg/L. Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium are ubiquitous in these settings and are recognized as nosocomial pathogens worldwide, but QACs’ activity against strains from diverse e...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has a significant impact on human, animal, and environmental health, being spread in diverse settings. Antibiotic misuse and overuse in the food chain are widely recognized as primary drivers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, other antimicrobials, such as metals and organic acids, commonly present in agri-foo...

Acid stress poses a common challenge for bacteria in diverse environments by the presence of inorganic (e.g., mammals’ stomach) or organic acids (e.g., feed additives; acid-based disinfectants). Limited knowledge exists regarding acid-tolerant strains of specific serotypes, clonal lineages, or sources in human/animal pathogens: namely, non-typhoida...

Acid stress poses a common challenge for bacteria in diverse environments by the presence of inorganic (e.g., mammals’ stomach) or organic acids (e.g., feed additives; acid-based disinfectants). Limited knowledge exists regarding acid-tolerant strains of specific serotypes, clonal lineages, or sources in human/animal pathogens, namely non-typhoidal...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has a significant global impact on human, animal, and environmental health. Misuse and overuse of antibiotics in clinical and animal production settings are the main drivers behind the emergence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria. However, other compounds with antimicrobial activity may also contribute to this global...

The spread of bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotics such as colistin throughout the food chain is a serious concern for public health. The poultry sector has responded by restricting colistin use and exploring alternative trace metals/copper feed supplements.

The use of antibiotics in animal production is linked to the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a threat to animal, environmental and human health. Copper (Cu) is an essential element in poultry diets and an alternative to antibiotics, supplementing inorganic or organic trace mineral feeds (ITMF/OTMF). However, its contribution...

The concern of colistin-resistant bacteria in animal-food-environmental-human ecosystems prompted the poultry sector to implement colistin restrictions and explore alternative trace metals/copper feed supplementation. The impact of these strategies on the selection and persistence of colistin-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) in the whole poultr...

Poultry meat has been a vehicle of antibiotic resistant bacteria and genes. Yet, the diversity of selective pressures associated with their maintenance in the poultry-production chain remains poorly explored. We evaluated the susceptibility of Enterococcus spp. from chicken meat collected 20 years apart to antibiotics, metals, acidic pH and peracet...

Chlorhexidine (CHX) is widely used to control the spread of pathogens (e.g., human/animal clinical settings, ambulatory care, food industry). Enterococcus faecalis, a major nosocomial pathogen, is broadly distributed in diverse hosts and environments facilitating its exposure to CHX over the years. Nevertheless, CHX activity against E. faecalis is...

The expansion of mcr‐carrying bacteria is a well‐recognized public health problem. Measures to contain mcr spread have mainly been focused on the food‐animal production sector. Nevertheless, the spread of MCR‐producers at the environmental interface particularly driven by the increasing population of gulls in coastal cities has been less explored....

Chlorhexidine (CHX) is widely used to control the spread of pathogens (e.g. human/animal clinical settings, ambulatory care, food industry). E. faecalis, a major nosocomial pathogen, is broadly distributed in diverse hosts and environments facilitating its exposure to CHX over the years. Nevertheless, CHX activity against E. faecalis is understudie...

Arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), and copper (Cu) are among the major historical and contemporary metal pollutants linked to global anthropogenic activities. Enterococcus have been considered indicators of fecal pollution and antibiotic resistance for years, but its largely underexplored metallome precludes understanding their role as metal pollution bio...

Expansion of mcr‐carrying Enterobacteriaceae (MCR‐E) is a well‐recognized problem affecting animals, humans and the environment. Ongoing global control actions involve colistin restrictions among food‐animal production, but their impact on poultry‐derived products is largely unknown, justifying comprehensive farm‐to‐fork studies. Occurrence of MCR‐...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global societal challenge requiring the contribution of professionals along with general community citizens for their containment. Portugal is one of the European countries where a lack of knowledge on the correct use of antimicrobials and AMR problematic is preeminent. Moreover, youth demotivation to pursue scie...

Poultry products are still an important cause of Salmonella infections worldwide, with an increasingly reported expansion of less-frequent serotypes or atypical strains that are frequently multidrug-resistant. Nevertheless, the ability of Salmonella to survive antimicrobials promoted in the context of antibiotic reducing/replacing and farming rethi...

Emergence and expansion of frequent multidrug‐resistant (MDR) major Salmonella clones/serotypes has been a significant threat in the last years. Metal compounds, such as copper, commonly used in animal‐production settings, have been pointed out as possible contributors for the selection of such strains/clones. However, the scarcity of studies limit...

Food-to-Humans Bacterial Transmission, Page 1 of 2 Abstract Food is considered one of the main environmental drivers shaping the human microbiota across the life span. Microorganisms vehiculated by food can be related to a variety of scenarios, including those benefiting health (e.g., stimulation of host antibodies, release of chemicals to stimul...

The emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria to last-resource antibiotics like colistin is a global and multi-factorial phenomenon transversal to human-animal-food-environmental sectors. Mobile colistin resistance (mcr) genes have been detected in diverse ecological niches however the role of migratory birds, like gulls, as a sour...

Chlorhexidine is one of the substances included in the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines, which comprises the safest and most effective medicines needed in global health systems. Although it has been widely applied as a disinfectant and antiseptic in health care (skin, hands, mouthwashes, eye drops) since the 1950s, its use in...

Chlorhexidine (CHX) is a broad-spectrum antiseptic widely used in community and clinical contexts for many years, recently acquiring higher relevance in nosocomial infections control worldwide. Despite of this, CHX tolerance has been poorly understood among Enterococcus faecium , one of the leading agents causing nosocomial infections. This study p...

Salmonellosis remains one of the most frequent foodborne zoonosis, constituting a worldwide major public health concern. The most frequent sources of human infections are food products of animal origin, being pork meat one of the most relevant. Currently, particular pig food production well-adapted and persistent Salmonella enterica serotypes (e.g....

The impact of European aquaculture, namely trout farms, in the spread of antibiotic resistance and/or zoonotic pathogens has been scarcely addressed. Moreover, aquaculture contamination sources and bacterial dissemination routes have been barely explored. In this study, we assessed the contribution of Portuguese land-based intensive rainbow trout f...

The emergence of mobile colistin resistance genes (mcr) is yet another challenge in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, with reports proving the dissemination of these genes in different countries and different environments being of great concern. In the present study, we describe the recovery of three E. coli strains with mcr-1 gene in Inc...

Simpler, quick and low-cost methods for routine Salmonella enterica typing are required for epidemiologic surveillance of this important zoonotic pathogen. In this study, using a comprehensive isolate collection, we investigated the potential of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIRS) to discriminate the most clinically-relevant serogroups...

The role of European fish farms in the spread of antimicrobial-resistance in the environment and food chain, as well as possible sources of their contamination by clinically relevant antimicrobial-resistance bacteria is scarcely known. This study aimed to assess the contribution of Portuguese rural trout farms on dispersion of Enterococcus with ant...

We describe a hospital-based outbreak caused by multidrug-resistant, Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase 3-producing , mcr-1-positive K. pneumoniae sequence type 45 in Portu-gal. mcr-1 was located in an IncX4 plasmid. Our data highlight the urgent need for systematic surveillance of mcr-1 to support adequate therapeutic choices in the nosocomial se...

Extended-spectrum cephalosporin (ESC)-resistant Salmonella has been described at low level in EU, nevertheless the increasing importation of poultry meat could be an important source of epidemic strains carrying ESC-resistant genes. We evaluated ESC resistance and characterized genetic platforms as well as the clonal relatedness of Salmonella isola...

O objetivo do Guia é compilar, complementar e disponibilizar um conjunto informação existente relativa aos critérios microbiológicos ao longo de todas as etapas da cadeia alimentar, não incluindo a produção primária, visando apoiar e facilitar a sua aplicação. O presente guia apresenta alguns exemplos de critérios microbiológicos aplicáveis ao long...

Non-typhoidal Salmonella is an important burden, particularly in developing countries of the African region. We report for the first time in Angola, a sub-Saharan African country with commercial/travel relationships with Europe, an unexpectedly high occurrence of Salmonella ( n = 12/63, 19%) from a high diversity of sources, particularly farm and w...

The mcr-1 gene was found in 11 isolates from a Portuguese Salmonella collection (n = 1,010; 58 sero- types; 2002–15) of clinical samples, foodstuff, food-animals and water. Mcr-1 has been located on different plasmids (IncX4/IncHI2) in pig-associated multidrug- resistant, copper-tolerant S.1,4,[5],12:i:-/ST34 and S. Rissen/ST469 clones from human a...

The mcr-1 gene was found in 11 isolates from a Portuguese Salmonella collection (n = 1,010; 58 serotypes; 2002-15) of clinical samples, foodstuff, foodanimals and water. Mcr-1 has been located on different plasmids (IncX4/IncHI2) in pig-associated multidrugresistant, copper-tolerant S.1,4,[5],12:i:-/ST34 and S. Rissen/ST469 clones from human and po...

Objectives: Factors driving the expansion of particular MDR Salmonella serotypes/clones are not completely understood. We assessed if emergent MDR Salmonella serotypes/clones were more enriched in metal tolerance genes (e.g. to Cu/Ag) than other less frequent ones, as an additional feature to survive in environments contaminated with metals. Meth...

We proposed in the Basic Microbiology Subject for food science and nutrition students, a “hands-on” activity consisting on sampling student's hands for bacterial presence and identification. This is a project to be implemented in multiple laboratory classes throughout the semester, allowing students to learn, and apply general microbiology techniqu...

Salmonellosis remains one of the most frequent food-borne zoonoses, constituting a worldwide major public health concern. Currently, at a global level, the main sources of infection for humans include meat products, including the consumption of contaminated poultry meat, in spite of the success of Salmonella control measures implemented in food-ani...

In sub-Saharan African regions (sSAr), antibiotic consumption is rising but surveillance capacity is still minimal. Resistance to beta-lactams is widely reported, due to the low cost and readily availability of these antibiotics.A country with very limited antimicrobial resistance (AMR) data is Angola, a million people emergent economy, recently le...

The occurrence of acquired metal tolerance genes in emerging MDR Salmonella enterica serotype 4,[5],12:i:− clones was assessed and their associated platforms and tolerance phenotype were characterised. Salmonella 4,[5],12:i:− from different sources belonging to European, Spanish and Southern European clones were studied. Screening for copper (pcoA-...

Sir, Along with the use of antibiotics, other compounds with antimicrobial activity present in human daily life, animal production settings and the environment might contribute to the selection of multidrug-resistant (MDR) microorganisms (http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_risk/committees/04_scenihr/docs/scenihr_o_021.pdf). Among them are quaternary am...

To better understand the recent success/emergence of Salmonella enterica serotype 4,[5],12:i:- we characterized the population diversity, fljAB deletion patterns, antibiotic resistance features and associated genetic elements of a comprehensive collection obtained in the last decade from Portugal (2002–2010). One hundred thirty-one isolates from hu...

We studied the occurrence of diverse copper (Cu) tolerance genes from Gram-positive bacteria and their co-transfer with antibiotic resistance genes among Enterococcus from diverse sources. Enterococcus (n = 922) of several species and from human, animal, environment and food samples were included. Antimicrobial and CuSO4 susceptibility and conjugat...

The presence of multidrug resistant (MDR) Salmonella serotypes in slaughtered swine, carcasses, meat and meat handlers is scarcely evaluated. Recently we demonstrated that diverse Salmonella serotypes are frequently present in swine, pork meat and carcasses, and meat handlers at Portuguese abattoirs. Here we have characterized their antibiotic resi...

The aim of this study was to discover the potential role of the pig farm environment in the spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Enterococcus strains, including high-risk clones, to animals and humans. Enterococcus isolates were recovered from a variety of samples (n = 82; swine, feed/medicines/antiseptics and pig farm facilities) from six Portugues...

We aim to characterise multiple ertapenem-resistant (ERT-R, n = 15) Enterobacteriaceae isolates identified as presumptive carbapenemase producers in a Portuguese hospital in a short period of time (March-July 2010). Antibiotic susceptibility patterns, β-lactamases, genetic relatedness [pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multi-locus sequence t...

In this study the occurrence of Salmonella in swine, pork meat and meat handlers along with their clonal relatedness is evaluated at abattoir level. Samples from the lymph nodes, carcass surface and meat of 100 pigs and 45 meat handlers were collected in eight abattoirs (July 2007-August 2008). Salmonella isolates were serotyped and genotyped by pu...

To assess the presence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Salmonella with human clinical relevance in pig farms from different regions of Portugal and to analyse their mobile genetic elements associated with antibiotic resistance. Seventy-nine samples were collected from six piggeries and analysed for the presence of Salmonella. All isolates were examine...

To analyse the genetic environment of the bla(CMY-2) gene in a multidrug-resistant isolate belonging to the OXA-30-producing Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium clone widespread in European countries. Preliminary characterization of CMY-2 was performed after determining the phenotype against β-lactams, the pI (isoelectric focusing) and the pre...

The applicability of the repetitive-sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR)-based DiversiLab system was tested compared with the pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to type a phenotypically similar subset of a large collection of multiresistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated during a 17-month period from patients treated in different wards includ...

A sul3 domain (IS440-sul3-orfl-IS26) was found linked to an unusual 3′ conserved sequence region (qacH) of class 1 integrons and detected among nontyphoid Salmonella isolates (n = 47) from different sources. Three types of integrons differing in the gene cassette array (dfrA12-orfF-aadA2- cmlA1-aadA1, dfrA12-orfF-aadA2/1, and estX-psp-aadA2-cmlA1-a...

Recent observations in Portugal of a remarkable incidence (65%) of Salmonella isolates from several sources (predominantly human and poultry) with decreased susceptibility to nitrofurantoin (MIC > or =64 mg/L), mostly comprising serogroup D isolates of Salmonella Enteritidis belonging to different phage types, suggest that illegal use of nitrofuran...

The antimicrobial resistance profiles of 1183 Salmonella isolates collected during 2002-2003 from several sources (human, food products and environment) were evaluated. The occurrence, distribution and cassette content of class 1 and 2 integrons among the sulphonamide-resistant population, as well as the role of particular clones to the spread of t...

In 200 sulfonamide-resistant Portuguese Salmonella isolates, 152 sul1, 74 sul2, and 14 sul3 genes were detected. Class 1 integrons were always associated with sul genes, including sul3 alone in some isolates. The sul3 gene has been identified in isolates from different sources and serotypes, which also carried a class 1 integron with aadA and dfrA...

Characterization of the molecular basis for beta-lactam resistance and evaluation of the clonal relatedness among nine isolates of multidrug-resistant Salmonella typhimurium recovered from seven clinical human samples and two pork end products. The isolates were examined for susceptibility to antimicrobial agents. The relationships between resistan...

The incidence of Salmonella in 60 samples of poultry products of national origin available for consumers obtained from two local butcher shops and one canteen of the city of Porto and the susceptibility to antimicrobial agents allowed for human or animal therapy were evaluated. The results show that poultry samples are frequently contaminated with...

The occurrence of Listeria spp. and Listeria monocytogenes in 63 samples of Portuguese poultry carcasses obtained from two local butcher shops and one canteen in the city of Porto, Portugal, and the susceptibility of these bacteria to antimicrobial agents allowed for use in human or animal therapeutics were evaluated. All poultry samples were conta...

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