Abstract
Due to the increased demand of animal protein in developing countries, intensive farming is instigated, which results in antibiotic residues in animal-derived products, and eventually, antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is of great public health concern because the antibiotic-resistant bacteria associated with the animals may be pathogenic to humans, easily transmitted to humans via food chains, and widely disseminated in the environment via animal wastes. These may cause complicated, untreatable, and prolonged infections in humans, leading to higher healthcare cost and sometimes death. In the said countries, antibiotic resistance is so complex and difficult, due to irrational use of antibiotics both in the clinical and agriculture settings, low socioeconomic status, poor sanitation and hygienic status, as well as that zoonotic bacterial pathogens are not regularly cultured, and their resistance to commonly used antibiotics are scarcely investigated (poor surveillance systems). The challenges that follow are of local, national, regional, and international dimensions, as there are no geographic boundaries to impede the spread of antibiotic resistance. In addition, the information assembled in this study through a thorough review of published findings, emphasized the presence of antibiotics in animal-derived products and the phenomenon of multidrug resistance in environmental samples. This therefore calls for strengthening of regulations that direct antibiotic manufacture, distribution, dispensing, and prescription, hence fostering antibiotic stewardship. Joint collaboration across the world with international bodies is needed to assist the developing countries to implement good surveillance of antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance.
Highlights
The term antibiotics encompass a wide range of chemical substances that are produced naturally, semi-synthetically, and synthetically, and are used to inhibit bacterial growth or kill them [1,2,3]
The antibiotic consumption patterns in agriculture vary across regions and countries in the developing world, and even antibiotics that have been banned in other countries, including the developed countries, are still being used in most developing countries [9,10]
Most of the gastrointestinal diseases of humans of public health concern including gastroenteritis, salmonellosis, shigellosis, cholera, listeriosis, campylobacteriosis, and yersiniosis are caused by pathogenic bacteria of public health and environmental importance via water and/or food contaminated with feces of animals or patients [236]
Summary
The term antibiotics encompass a wide range of chemical substances that are produced naturally, semi-synthetically, and synthetically, and are used to inhibit (bacteriostatic) bacterial growth or kill them (bactericidal) [1,2,3]. Does the administration of antibiotics in food-producing animals facilitate antibiotic resistance, but it may result in the presence of antibiotic residues (including the parent compounds or its metabolites, or both) in animal-derived products (muscles, kidney, liver, fat, milk, and egg) available for human consumption These antibiotic residues have been reported to exert a huge and negative impact on public health and food safety with regards to drug toxicity, immunopathological diseases, carcinogenicity, allergic reactions, and drug sensitization, amongst others [7,23,24,25]. The consequential and devastating effect of antibiotic use, known as antibiotic resistance, has been deliberated on to include salient aspects, such as the determination of antibiotic resistance, antibiotic resistance in livestock farming, as well as antibiotic resistance in manure-impacted environment (soil and water)
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