Critical knowledge gaps - environment and antibiotic resistance

The environment play important roles in both the evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance. This review provides guidance to what knowledge gaps are critical to fill, in order to better manage risks related to antibiotic resistance from environmental sources. These gaps include: 1) the relative contributions of different sources of antibiotics and antibiotic resistant bacteria into the environment; 2) the role of the environment, and particularly anthropogenic inputs, in the evolution of resistance; 3) the overall human and animal health impacts caused by exposure to environmental resistant bacteria; and 4) the efficacy and feasibility of different technological, social, economic and behavioral interventions to mitigate environmental antibiotic resistance. The analysis is a result of a workshop held in Gothenburg, Sweden in September 2017 initiated by the Joint Programming Initiative of Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR) with 26 experts from 14 countries, led by Prof Joakim Larsson.

The study is published in the journal Environment International (link)