Ronald Romuald Bebey Vougat Ngom ^1,2 Andrea Laconi ^2* Roberta Tolosi ² Adonis M M Akoussa ¹ Stephane D Ziebe ¹ Vincent K Mantthe ³ Alessandra Piccirillo ²

• ¹ University of Ngaoundéré, Ngaoundéré, Adamawa, Cameroon
• ² University of Padua, Padua, Italy
• ³ National Veterinary Laboratory, Garoua, Cameroon, Garoua, Cameroon

Introduction: poultry production accounts for 42% of Cameroonian meat production. However, infectious diseases represent the main hindrance in this sector, resulting in overuse and misuse of antimicrobials that can contribute to the emergence and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) conferring resistance to carbapenems (blaVIM-2 and blaNDM), (fluoro)quinolones (qnrS, qnrA, and qnrB), polymyxins (mcr1 to mcr5), and macrolides (ermA and ermB) in the poultry farm environment. Additionally, the study examined the relationship between these ARGs and biosecurity implementation, as well as farmers' knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards antimicrobial use (AMU) and AMR, including their perception of AMR risk.Materials and methods: faecal, drinking water (DW), and biofilm samples from drinking water pipelines were collected from fifteen poultry farms and subsequently analysed by real-time PCR and 16S rRNA NGS. Results: all samples tested positive for genes conferring resistance to (fluoro)quinolones, 97.8% to macrolides, 64.4% to polymyxins, and 11.1% to carbapenems. Of concern, more than half of the samples (64.4%) showed a multi-drug resistance (MDR) pattern (i.e., resistance to ≥ 3 antimicrobial classes). Drinking waterDW and biofilm microbial communities significantly differed from the one of the faecal samples, both in term of diversity (α-diversity) and composition (β-diversity). Furthermore, opportunistic pathogens (i.e., Comamonadaceae and Sphingomonadaceae) were among the most abundant bacteria in drinking waterDW and biofilm. The level of biosecurity implementation was intermediate, while the knowledge and attitude of poultry farmers towards AMU were insufficient and unsuitable, respectively. Good practices towards AMU were found to be correlated with a reduction in polymyxins and MDR.Discussion: this study provides valuable information on resistance to medically important antimicrobials in poultry production in Cameroon and highlights their potential impact on human and environmental health.