Farming reshapes the gut resistome, virulome, and mobilome of Cervidae.

Farming increases antimicrobial resistance genes, virulence factors, and mobile genetic elements in the gut microbiome of Cervidae, with farmed animals showing higher ARG diversity than wild ones.

• Why it matters: Understanding how farming influences gut microbiomes is crucial because it can facilitate the spread of antimicrobial resistance, posing risks to both animal and human health.
• What they did: Researchers analyzed 89 newly sequenced and 599 existing fecal metagenomes from farmed and wild Cervidae, constructing a catalog of 15,494 MAGs across 2,401 species to compare microbiome functions.
• The result: Farming significantly reshaped the gut microbiome, increasing ARG abundance and diversity, with evidence of horizontal gene transfer and shared resistance genes with humans, highlighting environmental AMR reservoirs.