CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

High altitude Andean wetlands are exposed to extreme environmental factors like high levels of salinity, UV radiation and heavy metals and low concentrations of phosphorus. Nevertheless, they are the habitat of enormous populations of three flamingo species that migrate among these wetlands. Previous reports have determined that bacteria isolated from these environments present high levels of resistance to antibiotics. The aim of this work was to determine the diversity of antibiotic resistant bacteria in water from Andean wetlands and their connection with flamingo enteric biota. Bacteria from water and birds faeces from high altitude wetlands: Laguna (L.) Aparejos, L. Negra, L. Vilama and L. Azul (all are located between 4,200 and 4,600 m altitude) were isolated by plating in in five different Antibiotics (ampicillin, 100 µg ml-1; chloramphenicol, 170 µg ml-1; colistin , 20 µg ml-1; erythromycin, 50 µg ml-1and tetracycline 50 µg ml-1). 56 bacteria were isolated and identified by 16 S rDNA sequencing. Antibiotic resistance profiles of isolated bacteria were determined for 22 different antibiotics. All identified bacteria were able to growth in multiple ATBs. Colistin, ceftazidime, ampicillin/sulbactam, cefotaxime, cefepime, cefalotin, ampicillin and erythromycin were the most distributed resistances among the 56 tested bacteria The current results demonstrated that antibiotic resistance was abundant and diverse in high altitude wetlands. Also the present article indicates some useful patents regarding the isolation of bacteria able to grow in the present of antibiotics.