Emergence of Plasmid-mediated Fosfomycin Resistance Among Harboring , (X4), and Genes in Wild Birds

Importance: The global spread of the plasmid-mediated fosfomycin resistance gene bearing strains incurs a public health concern. However, research focusing on the pervasiveness of -positive isolates in wild birds is still rare, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the first documentation from South Asia highlighting the concurrent presence of the , , and (X4) genes within isolates recovered from fecal samples of wild birds in Pakistan. This co-existence of ARGs along with phylogenetic analysis revealed that MDR plasmids carried by isolates have the ability to spread horizontally between wild birds, food animals, and humans. Co-existence of , (X4), and -carrying plasmids is worrying and warrants further investigation.