Antimicrobial Resistance, Food Systems and Climate Change

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the greatest threat to global health, food security, and development today. Every year, antimicrobial resistant infections kill 700,000 people across the globe. If dramatic actions are not taken soon, this number could skyrocket, reaching ten million deaths annually by 2050. The rapid emergence of antimicrobial-resistant infections is exacerbated by the irrantional use of antimicrobials in human and veterinary medicine and in the agriculture industry.Antimicrobial use is considered to be the single most important factor leading to resistance. Demand for meat is rising with the increase in world population, driving the expansion of large commercial livestock and poultry farming where antibiotics are frequently used in for treatment, prophylactic and growth promotion to ensure safe and sufficient food. A growing world population, temperature and the increasing food demand has put immense pressure on our food supply chains and food systems. Partly driven by public concerns over antimicrobial resistance, the food industry is slowly shifting away from meat raised with antibiotics. Recently, climatic factor like an increase in global temperature has also been attributed to be contributing towards emergence of antimicrobial resistance.Here we review, the issue of antimicrobial resistance in relation to the antibiotic use in food animals, climate change and food security. Firstly, we discussed concepts and consequences of antimicrobial resistance, food security and climate change. Later, we addressed the connections and interplay between antimicrobial resistant microorganisms and anthropogenic climate changes in relation to food safety and security. We found that mainstreaming antimicrobial resistance into broader universal health coverage, sustainable development, food system and environment agendas is key, both to scaling and to sustaining efforts to address antimicrobial resistance. A positive correlation between an increase in temperature with an increase in antimicrobial resistance has been found. These ongoing challenges suggest that the burden of antimicrobial resistance could be significantly underestimated in the face of a growing population and climate change.