Gabriel Arriagada ● Profesor Asociado

The use of antimicrobials (AMU) in the salmon farming industry in Chile is concentrated in the sea fattening phase of the production cycle. In 2022, 91% of the AMU in fattening farms was for treatment of Piscirickettsia salmonis (Sernapesca, 2023), the main disease-causing pathogen affecting farmed salmon in Chile (Rozas and Enriquez, 2014). To control P. salmonis, a series of preventive strategies have been adopted. Nevertheless, the incidence of P. salmonis remains high; resulting in high mortality rates (Jakob et al., 2014) and extensive AMU. The use of antimicrobials is exacerbated by current management practices in salmon farms as well as a lack of standardization in treatment guidelines and practices between veterinarians and companies (e.g. treatment of all or selected cages, dosage, etc.), but also because of limited consolidation, communication and use of available AMU data. The aim of this project is to reduce antimicrobial consumption in salmon farming in Los Lagos and Aysen regions where P. salmonis is a challenge and improve science-based governance of AMU in the salmon farming sector through a surveillance, alert and response system (SVARS). The project will be implemented in two phases. Phase one will focus on increasing the knowledge of AMU drivers by developing a catalog of practices and factors that impact the use of antimicrobials and conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis to assess the more cost efficient alternative methods to AMU practices. The catalog will be compiled in a format that can be used to implement improvements on high AMU farms. Different AMU metrics will be reviewed and selected to differentiate farms with low, medium and high AMU. In addition, the legislative requirements to develop and sustain a surveillance, alert and response system (SVARS) to reduce AMU in Chilean salmon farming will be reviewed. Finally, the infrastructural and operational requirements for the platform will be assessed and the design of the platform will be completed, integrating geospatial and health information. In phase two, the SVARS will categorize the farms based on their AMU levels. The high use farms will be recruited to a Randomized Controlled Trial where intervention farms will implement practices and methods from the catalog created in phase one to reduce AMU. The outcomes and the effectiveness of the SVARS will be quantitatively and qualitatively assessed. Finally, results and outcomes of establishing and implementing the SVARS will be shared with relevant stakeholders in Chile, to low-and middle-income countries in the region and beyond, e.g. through workshops and education training programs in order to disseminate the results.

Objetivo General Desarrollar un kit de qPCR que permita evaluar con precisión la sensibilidad farmacológica de C. rogercresseyi a tratamientos como inhibidores de quitina mediante asociación estadística entre frecuencia de marcadores genómicos y eficacia de tratamientos en campo. Objetivos Específicos 1. Validar estadísticamente la relación entre las variantes genómicas detectadas por el kit de qPCR y la resistencia a tratamientos con inhibidores de quitina. 2. Establecer un protocolo de buenas prácticas de laboratorio para la correcta aplicación del kit de qPCR. 3. Implementar capacitaciones para laboratorios y culminar con la certificación de aquellos aptos para aplicar la técnica con eficacia.

Vinculación internacional para la evaluación de la capacidad centinela de moluscos bivalvos filtradores en el monitoreo de contaminantes emergentes en áreas costeras marinas

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a phenomenon that happens when bacteria become tolerant to antibiotics used to treat the infections they cause. Antibiotics are key therapeutic tools to treat many human and animal infectious diseases; consequently, keeping their activity on bacteria is fundamental for public and animal health. Aquaculture farming is known for using large amounts of antibiotics, making this activity particularly relevant in development and spread of AMR in aquatic environments. There is evidence in Chile that aquaculture activity increases the presence of resistant bacteria and their corresponding genes in marine sediments directly impacted by salmon farms; however, these evaluations are limited to few locations which hampers a generalization of these conclusions to other salmon farming sites in Chilean waters. There is also evidence suggesting that aquaculture-associated resistance genes present in marine sediments might be transferred to bacteria with pathogenic potential in humans such as Escherichia coli, but no studies have reported the presence of resistance traits in such bacteria in the marine environment from areas impacted by salmon farming in Chile. In countries like Norway, bivalve mollusks are used to monitor antibiotic resistance in Enterobacteria in the marine environment; therefore, they could also be useful for monitoring AMR associated with salmon farming and other anthropogenic sources in Chile. Sampling of bivalve mollusks represents an important logistical advantage to complex and expensive seabed sediment sampling. Los Lagos is the region with the highest historical production of farmed salmon in Chile; then, it is a suitable area to investigate the impact of aquaculture-sourced AMR in the marine environment. The general objective of this proposal is to investigate aquaculture-associated AMR in the marine environment of Los Lagos region from an epidemiologic approach, using bivalve mollusks as sentinel organisms and E. coli as the indicator bacterium. Specific objectives include: 1) to detect, characterize and estimate the prevalence of AMR in E. coli isolated from bivalve mollusks in the Los Lagos region, through a region-level sampling; 2) to study the spatial variability of AMR in E. coli isolated from bivalve mollusks from Los Lagos region; 3) to evaluate the effect of salmon farming activity on the richness and intensity of AMR in E. coli isolated from bivalves from Los Lagos region, controlling for potential confounding factors; and 4) to determine whether significant differences exist in the accumulation of E. coli and resistant E. coli in bivalve mollusks between the sampled bivalve species, accounting for environmental and biological factors. Bivalve mollusks samples will be obtained the 130 sampling stations set along the coast of Los Lagos by the National Program for Surveillance and Control of Harmful Algal Blooms Intoxications (red tides) coordinated by the Ministry of Health. Thirty-three additional sampling stations will be set in the same study area in order to achieve the calculated total sample size of 163 sampling stations. At each sampling station bivalve mollusks will be sampled to quantify E. coli and to detect and characterize both phenotypic and genotypic AMR in this bacterium. The study will be focused in 29 antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and 20 antibiotics commonly used in salmon farming or for which resistance has been detected in previous studies. The antimicrobial susceptibility will be performed by estimating the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for each antibiotic using the VITEK2 technology. The genotypic analysis will be carried out by means of the detection target ARGs, through PCR. Spatial clustering will be examined for each antibiotic tested using MIC values and the ARG richness index; global clustering will be evaluated through the Moran’s I statistic, while local clustering will be examined by means of the spatial scan statistic. ARG richness will be modeled as a function of the local salmon farming intensity expressed as the number of active salmon farms within 10 km seaway distance from the bivalve sampling location, using a Poisson mixed-effects model in order to control for other AMR sources and important environmental variables. Similar models will be constructed using MICs as the outcome for antimicrobials that show substantial variability in this parameter. Finally, the abundance of both total and resistant E. coli (MPN/100g) found in bivalve mollusks will be modeled as a function of the bivalve species sampled, accounting for bivalve size, water temperature, local salmon farming intensity and distance to other AMR sources, using a mixed-effect linear regression model. This study will contribute to characterize and to identify the main drivers of the environmental AMR in an area with intense salmon farming activity, and it will help to understand how this AMR can impact public health through potential pathogenic bacteria. In practice, this proposal will be the first extensive epidemiological study in this matter in Chile. Moreover, this proposal will help to determine which bivalve mollusks species are suitable to monitor AMR in environments impacted by salmon farming. All this information will be crucial to set the foundations for a future AMR monitoring program in areas of intense aquaculture.

Sistema Articulado de Investigación en Cambio Climático y Sustentabilidad de Zonas Costeras de Chile CUECH/RISUE RED21992

El objetivo es diseñar e implementar una estrategia transdisciplinaria de vinculación entre los apicultores de la región y la Universidad de O´Higgins, que permita construir una “Hoja de Ruta” para resolver las brechas existentes en el sector y definir las líneas de investigación aplicada a desarrollarse. Esto permitirá mejorar la asociatividad de los apicultores, mejorar la salud de las colmenas, los servicios de polinización y por ende la productividad apícola regional.

Aún lejos de tener una vacuna efectiva y segura, los gobiernos nacionales han tenido que establecer medidas sanitarias (e.g. cuarentena) para reducir el impacto de la pandemia de COVID-19. Sin embargo, no existe claridad respecto a cuáles medidas son las más eficaces y cómo la efectividad de éstas es afectada por diferentes contextos sociales, demográficos y epidemiológicos. El objetivo de esta propuesta es desarrollar un estudio observacional para evaluar el impacto de las diferentes medidas de control aplicadas por la autoridad sanitaria sobre la dinámica de COVID-19, a nivel comunal y de áreas metropolitanas, utilizando la información generada por el Ministerio de Salud. Los datos serán analizados utilizando modelos de regresión para datos de conteo, lo que permitirá evaluar potenciales desfases en el tiempo de los efectos de las medidas de control, junto con considerar el efecto de variables potencialmente confundentes. Al finalizar este estudio, la autoridad sanitaria dispondrá de evidencia científica para sustentar el establecimiento de diferentes medidas de control para COVID-19, dependiendo de contextos sociales, demográficos y epidemiológicos, permitiendo enfatizar aquellas medidas más adecuadas para cada caso. Los modelos quedarán disponibles en una aplicación web donde podrán ser interrogados por las autoridades sanitarias.

Este proyecto tiene como objetivo, ejecutar un sistema de extensión para productores hortícolas y apícolas de la región de O’Higgins, junto con un sistema de monitoreo de peligros alimentarios, un sistema de cultura de inocuidad y un SELLO o marca de certificación en base a criterios de inocuidad alimentaria.