OH-STAR, the One Health Selection and Transmission of Antimicrobial Resistance project

Opportunistic infection
An opportunistic infection occurs when bacteria start growing in an area where they wouldn’t normally be present and cause disease. Examples include faecal bacteria causing infections when they gain access to the urinary tract, or skin bacteria entering the bloodstream.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
Antimicrobial resistance is the ability of a bacteria to stop an antibiotic (or other antimicrobial agent) working against it. They may gain genes from the environment or mutations in genes which were already present in order to do this.

E. coli
Escherichia coli is an extremely common bacterial species which is found in large quantities in the faeces of many animals.

Antibiotic
An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial drug which is used to treat and prevent bacterial infections.

Microbes
Microbes are single-celled organisms. Bacteria are microbes, as are yeasts, viruses and amoebae.

Resistance genes
These are genes in a microbe which give resistance to antibiotics. Different genes will give resistance to different antibiotics, and some bacteria may have multiple resistance genes. These genes may be part of the bacteria’s ‘normal’ genome, or may have come to the bacteria from another organism.

Zoonotic transmission
Zoonotic transmission is the transfer of potentially infectious bacteria from animals to humans.