Entry Routes of Antibiotics and Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment

Abstract

This chapter describes the current knowledge about the entry routes of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance in the environment. It starts with an overview of the most important entry routes being wastewater and sludge from urban wastewater treatment plants, and natural fertilizers like pig slurry and cow manure and fertilizer from poultry farming. These sites are referred to as hotspots for antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and antibiotic resistance bacteria (ARB), including bacteria pathogenic for humans and animals, also those mentioned on the WHO priority list of global priority pathogens and of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. All these entry routes, manure, wastewater, and aquacultures, are characterized in terms of general sources of antibiotics, ARB, and ARGs. We also analyze the European Surveillance of Veterinary Antimicrobial Consumption report on the sale of antibacterials for veterinary. Furthermore, the EU guidelines to reduce the sales of veterinary antimicrobials across Europe under the umbrella of the EU One-Health Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance are mentioned. In the last section we point the need to develop and standardize the guidelines and method protocols for surveillance of AMR which need to be practicable, comparable, simple, and cost-effective so that they can be applied globally.