The transfer of antibiotic residues and antibiotic resistant bacteria into the environment and subsequently into animal drinking water may have an effect on the transmission of resistant bacteria and their resistance genes back into the human population.
This holistic One Health view of antibiotic resistance is at the heart of our project. We want to determine if hospital wide antimicrobial stewardship implementation will reduce antibiotics and antibiotic resistant bacteria from entering the environment and if the reduction of antibiotic concentrations will lower the transfer of resistance genes within and between bacteria in the environment and in animals. We will show that hospital wastewater is a hotspot for selection of resistance and pave the way for future, targeted interventions aimed at reducing the amounts of antibiotics released into the environment even further.
Project partners
- Adam Roberts, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom (Coordinator)
- Andrew Singer, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, United Kingdom
- Nina Langeland, University of Bergen, Norway
- Michael Brouwer, Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, Netherlands
