Risks and Current Knowledge of Antimicrobial Resistance in Companion Animals

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Antibiotics in Animal Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 44

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
UMR Transfrontalière BioEcoAgro 1158, Université de Lille, Lille, France
Interests: antimicrobial peptides synthesized by the ribsomal pathway (bacteriocins); probiotics; microbial ecology; alternatives to antibiotics; antibiotic resistance; animal health; food bioconservation
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Guest Editor Assistant
Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Interests: antimicrobial resistance; companion animals; surveillance; hospital-acquired infections; veterinary medicine; antimicrobial stewardship

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the global overview of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), several efforts have been made to better understand and control its spread in livestock animals, because a major proportion of veterinary antibiotics (in Europe, around 90-95%) is used on them. But in recent years, following the One Health approach, companion animals (mainly dogs and cats) have also been receiving more and more attention. The evidence of the transmission of AMR bacteria, genes, and genetic mobile elements has been described by multiple studies, and their role in AMR dynamics is increasing in importance for four main reasons: first, their increasing presence in family households, especially in high-income countries; second, the more frequent direct contact they have with humans compared with livestock or wildlife; third, the frequent use of the same antibiotics for the same pathologies, with an enhanced opportunity to develop the same resistances; and fourth, the risk of bidirectional transmission, not only animal-to-human but also human-to-animal (reverse zoonosis), with a major risk of developing infections not treatable with drugs licensed for companion animals, and their potential emergence as maintenance reservoirs of AMR.

This Special Issue aims to better investigate the current evidence and future perspectives of the real role occupied by companion animals in global AMR epidemiology.

Prof. Dr. Djamel Drider
Guest Editor

Dr. Raffaele Scarpellini
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • antimicrobial resistance
  • companion animals
  • dogs
  • cats
  • clinically important antibiotics
  • One Health
  • reverse zoonosis
  • zoonosis
  • AMR epidemiology

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This special issue is now open for submission.
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