Scientists have discovered a highly antibiotic-resistant poultry pathogen collected from Hyderabad, India. This study provides the first data revealing the prevalence of 11 Helicobacter pullorum isolated from both free range and broiler chickens in the country.

It was found out that each isolate has five to six genes resistant to antibiotics like fluoroquinolones, sulfonamides, cephalosporins, and macrolides. They were also found to produce extended spectrums of β-lactamases enzymes making the penicillins ineffective against them.

Professor of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Niyaz Ahmed, PhD, who also co-authored the paper, said that the H. pullorum might be a potential threat not only to poultry but also to humans. Several cases have been reported stating that the microorganism may cause human enteric disease. Further, he said that it contains a toxin that can adversely affect cell cycle resulting in DNA damage and later on cancer.

"In countries like India, H. pullorum from poultry could be multiresistant already because of the prevailing animal husbandry practices," said Ahmed. The researchers revealed that wet market poultry outlets in India that served as subjects in the study use antimicrobials to boost weight gain and which resulted in the transmission of drug-resistance of microbes.

The study, which was published in the Journal for the Applied and Environmental Microbiology of the American Society for Microbiology, suggests that poultry products can be a major culprit for the transmission of the Helicobacter pullorum to humans. The findings also support the possibility that the subject pathogen is emerging from its close relation with known micro organisms like Campylobacter jejuni.