Special Issue "The Environmental Footprint of Antibiotics"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Angelina Pena
Group of Health Surveillance, Center of Pharmaceutical Studies Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Health Sciences Campus, Azinhaga de Santa Comba, 3000-548 Coimbra, Portugal
E-Mail: apena@ff.uc.pt
Interests: antibiotic use (including on animals and in agriculture); new methods for assaying and evaluating antibiotics; observational studies; qualitative and quantitative research; food and environmental residues

Dear Colleagues,

Antibiotics, widely used in human and veterinary medicine, are emerging environmental contaminants. In recent years there has been growing concern worldwide about their environment occurrence due to their adverse effects. Among all pharmaceuticals, they are believed to be of greatest concern due to the selection and development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria having great impact in human health.

Antibiotics residues have been found in a wide range of environmental samples, including surface water, ground water, and drinking water. Moreover, studies in the United States of America and Europe have detected antibiotic resistant bacteria in drinking water supplies. Monitoring and surveillance studies are needed to evaluate the environmental footprint of antibiotics, namely a better understanding of their transport and environmental fate, their persistence in water and sediment and assessment of the potential risks to the aquatic life, animals and humans. In recent years, several initiatives have been launched to establish or strengthen surveillance systems, both in EU member states and at an international level, to monitor the presence of these residues in the environment. Many actions could be considered to mitigate the antibiotic environmental footprint by promoting safety approaches along their lifecycle, endorsing their rational use, improving the drug disposal, WWTP treatment processes, take-back schemes and development of green pharmaceuticals.

This special issue will be dealing with the environmental footprint of antibiotics emphasising aspects related to their occurrence, fate and ecotoxicity, important issues for an integrated management of the possible environmental risk that is essential for the implementation of minimizing measures.

Prof. Dr. Angelina Pena
Guest Editor

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. For the first couple of issues the Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

• antibiotics
• occurrence
• fate
• environment risk
• ecotoxicity