Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), encoded by plasmid‐mediated AMR genes (ARGs), is an increasing global public health threat. Wildlife play a fundamental role as sentinels, reservoirs and potential vectors of ARGs. For the first time in Galapagos, we have identified and quantified the presence of ARGs in free‐living giant tortoises (Chelonoidis porteri). We performed ARG analyses by quantitative PCR of faeces collected from the cloaca of 30 tortoises widely distributed across Santa Cruz Island. Validated samples (n = 28) were analysed by a panel of up to 21 different ARGs and all 28 tortoise samples were positive to one or more genes encoding resistance. Thirteen of 21 tested ARGs were present in at least one sample, and 10 tortoises (35.7%) had a multi‐resistant pattern. We recommend additional research so we may more fully understand resistance patterns across taxa and geographical locations throughout the Galapagos archipelago, and the implications of ARGs for the health of wildlife, domestic animals, and humans. In this study, we found 100% of sampled giant tortoises had ARGs present in their faeces, suggesting a large‐scale distribution of these genes within the archipelago.

中文翻译：

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存在于自由生活的加拉帕戈斯陆龟（Chelonoidis porteri）的粪便微生物区系中的抗菌素耐药基因。

由质粒介导的AMR基因（ARG）编码的抗菌素耐药性（AMR）是全球公共卫生日益增加的威胁。野生动物作为ARG的前哨，水库和潜在媒介起着基本作用。我们首次在加拉帕戈斯群岛上发现并定量了在自由生活的巨型乌龟（Chelonoidis porteri）中ARG的存在。我们通过定量PCR对从分布在圣克鲁斯岛的30只陆龟的泄殖腔收集的粪便进行了ARG分析。验证样品（n 一组多达21种不同的ARG进行了分析（= 28），所有28种陆龟样品对一个或多个编码抗性的基因呈阳性。至少一个样品中有21种经测试的ARG中有13种存在，并且10种乌龟（35.7％）具有多重耐药性。我们建议您进行其他研究，以便我们可以更全面地了解整个加拉帕戈斯群岛的整个分类群和地理位置的抗药性模式，以及ARGs对野生动植物，家畜和人类健康的影响。在这项研究中，我们发现100％的巨型乌龟粪便中都存在ARG，这表明这些基因在群岛中有大规模分布。