Pinnipeds as sentinels of antimicrobial resistance: Mapping antimicrobial resistance genes in the waters of the United Kingdom

This dataset includes data collated and used in a meta-analysis from previous literature reporting on the prevalence and detection of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria isolated from pinnipeds. This includes the search and screen results, risk of bias and data extracted for the metanalysis. The protocol for this study is registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) under registration number CRD42021220169. The dataset also includes results from an endpoint PCR based assay used to detect the presence of clinically and environmentally important antimicrobial resistance genes. Samples from 81 animals were tested for 86 genes and 361 individual occurrences of 40 different antimicrobial resistance genes were identified.
This work was funded by Abertay University’s R-LINCS program. All animal and tracking data is property of the University of St Andrews and the Sea Mammal Research Unit. Seals were sampled by field scientists from the Sea Mammal Research Unit in St Andrews, Scotland conducting studies for the UK government on seal populations.

All UK capture, handling, and other licenced procedures were carried out under UK Home Office project licence (PF84B63DE and 70/7806) under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. The capture of seals was conducted under licence from Marine Scotland (Scotland) and Natural Resources Wales (Wales). Appropriate site-specific approvals were obtained, with any associated mitigation measures observed for designated sites, including ethics approval from the Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB) for work on Ramsey Island (EAC2018-01). Fieldwork was funded by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Analysis (now Department for Energy Security and Net Zero) under their Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme, through Hartley Anderson Ltd. The fieldwork, and its organisation, was also supported by NERC National Capability Funding (NE/R015007/1) to SMRU. Abertay ethics approval was given under ethics number EMS4465."