Recent emergence of a multidrug-resistant Campylobacter coli lineage linked to poultry in the Peruvian Amazon

Campylobacter coli is an important cause of diarrhoea, especially among children in low- and middle-income countries. We discovered a bacterial lineage, ST-1150, that is common in the Peruvian Amazon but rarely seen elsewhere. By analysing hundreds of genomes, we show that this lineage emerged and expanded rapidly from the 1980s onwards, coinciding with the intensification of poultry farming. It carries multiple genes that make it resistant to several antibiotic classes, suggesting that agricultural antibiotic use has shaped its evolution. Our findings reveal how local farming practices and antimicrobial exposure can drive the emergence of new resistant bacterial lineages, underscoring the need for integrated surveillance of human and animal infections.Included:assembled contigs (.fas files)annotated genomes (.gff files)