Antimicrobial and Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment – 2nd Volume

Dear Colleagues,

Although the worldwide dissemination of multidrug-resistant strains represents a major concern for the safeguarding of One Health, the role of natural environments as reservoirs of antimicrobial-resistant strains and determinants as well as of antimicrobial residues has been overlooked. Monitoring environmental resistance is of major importance in this context, particularly in habitats that are highly affected by anthropogenic contamination. Indeed, antimicrobial compound residues and resistant strains originating from human activities and effluents, including agricultural and farming practices and recreational activities, can disseminate through the environment through wildlife vectors or ground waters, reaching settings in which no antimicrobials can be directly administered to animals or humans. Besides being related to the selective pressure imposed by the presence of antimicrobials residues, pesticides, heavy metals, and other chemicals, resistance dissemination in the environment can also be triggered by increased environmental temperature, which is one of the main consequences of climate change. In fact, the majority of bacterial species is able to easily adapt to an increase in environmental temperature, stimulating the dissemination of resistant determinants between the three areas of One Health –, i.e., humans, animals, and the environment.

As such, characterizing the presence of antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance in the environment constitutes an important contribution to the establishment of effective surveillance and management programs that aim to unravel the evolution of resistance mechanisms and dissemination paths in natural environments as well as to evaluate potential consequences for human and animal health. This Special Issue constitutes a second volume that focuses on antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance in the environment and aims to publish manuscripts that contribute to our understanding of the impact of antimicrobials and bacterial antimicrobial resistance in environmental health.

Dr. Manuela Oliveira
Dr. Eva Cunha
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short 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 thoroughly refereed through a single-blind 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 monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• agriculture
• animal production
• antimicrobial resistance
• aquatic environment
• environmental resistance
• epidemiology
• genomics
• infections pathogenesis
• One Health
• wildlife