Free-living Canada Geese and Antimicrobial Resistance

A paper to be published in the June issue of the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases shows evidence that free-ranging geese can pick up antibiotic resistant strains of E. coli (in this case likely from a swine production facility) and potentially spread the pathogen into new areas (Free-living Canada Geese and Antimicrobial Resistance | CDC EID).

While this paper is yet another example of "spill-over" of pathogens from domestic animals to wildlife, I am somewhat disappointed the authors chose to emphasize that geese are potential vectors of zoonotic pathogens (and antibiotic resistant pathogens at that). Once again, wildlife that are passive recipients of livestock-originated bacteria become the "bad guy" (in my son's vernacular). Do a quick Google news search to see how this issue is being portrayed in the media.

In my humble opinion, this was an opportunity to emphasize the connectedness between livestock and wildlife health, and perhaps provide impetus to take measures to reduce transmission of bacteria and viruses from livestock to wildlife. Once a livestock disease spills over into wildlife populations, it is difficult or impossible to contain. Take bovine tuberculosis for example. Spread the world over by cattle, it has jumped into wildlife populations at locales in the UK, Australia, USA, South Africa, Tanzania, New Zealand, Canada among others. While we are making great progress reducing bovine tuberculosis in domestic cattle populations, the risk of spill-back from wildlife into livestock becomes more and more important and may prevent TB eradication in domestic livestock. I realize this isn't really a fair comparison as much of the transmission to wildlife occured a long time ago, the issue really demonstrates how difficult it is to get Pandora's box closed again.