Reducing antimicrobial resistance burden from livestock production by targeting pig gut health

Antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections are increasing at an alarming rate and are expected to result in a catastrophic humanitarian health crisis as more deaths due to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) than cancer is foreseen by year 2050. Our mission is to perform research that can benefit people and societies in the fight against AMR. The animal food production system has been a primary user of antibiotics for growth promotion, and although this was banned in the EU in 2006, conventional pig production remains to be a major consumer of antibiotics for treatment of infections. This paper presents the perspective of our project 'Preventing Infection in the Gut of developing Piglets -and thus Antimicrobial Resistance - by disentangling the interface of diet, the host and the Gastrointestinal Microbiome' (PIG-PARADIGM, https://projects.au.dk/pig-paradigm). The vision of PIG-PARADIGM is to reduce the overall need for antimicrobial treatments and mitigate the spread of AMR by delivering fundamental knowledge on (i) what defines healthy and robust intestinal function in pigs; (ii) what determines the host and microbial mechanisms leading to post weaning diarrhea and subsequent antibiotic use; (iii) how the intestinal microbiome and nutrition can be modulated to prevent the need for antibiotic use by promoting resilience to early life stress and intestinal infections; and (iv) how AMR can be minimized through increased intestinal resilience. Outcome is the knowledge on enhancing pig intestinal resilience and reducing diarrheal disease incidence, whereby the need for antibiotic use will be significantly reduced as will the risk for AMR pathogen emergence and spread.