Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Increasing antibiotic resistance (ABR) in low-income and middle-income countries such as Bangladesh presents a major health threat. However, assessing the scale of the health risk is problematic in the absence of reliable data on the community prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We describe the protocol for a small-scale integrated surveillance programme that aims to quantify the prevalence of colonisation with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and concentrations of antibiotic-resistant genes from a 'One Health' perspective. The holistic assessment of ABR in humans, animals and within the environment in urban and rural Bangladesh will generate comprehensive data to inform human health risk. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The study design focuses on three exposure-relevant sites where there is enhanced potential for transmission of ABR between humans, animals and the environment: (1) rural poultry-owning households, (2) commercial poultry farms and (3) urban live-bird markets. The comparison of ABR prevalence in human groups with high and low exposure to farming and poultry will enable us to test the hypothesis that ABR bacteria and genes from the environment and food-producing animals are potential sources of transmission to humans. Escherichia coli is used as an ABR indicator organism due to its widespread environmental presence and colonisation in both the human and animal gastrointestinal tract. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, and Loughborough University Ethics Committee. Data for the project will be stored on the open access repository of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Natural Environment Research Council. The results of this study will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international conferences.