Antibiotic Resistance in Agricultural Environments: Emergence, Drivers and Mitigation
A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Antibiotics in Animal Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 1583
Special Issue Editors
2. MOA Laboratory for Risk Assessment of Quality and Safety of Livestock and Poultry Products, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Interests: antimicrobial resistance mechanism; zoonotic pathogen; antimicrobial resistance control strategy; multi-epitope vaccine against bacterial pathogen
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance (AMR) in agricultural environments, especially in animal husbandry, poses a significant threat to both veterinary and public health. Excessive use of antibiotics in intensive farming practices has long been recognized as a key driver of AMR. However, increasing evidence implicates the role of non-antibiotic stressors such as heavy metals, biocides, feed additives, microplastics, etc., in the co-selection and persistence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in various ecosystems.
Agricultural environments serve as hotspots and important reservoirs of horizontal gene transfer, facilitating the dissemination of diverse resistance determinants like ARGs across microbial communities. Thus, this Special Issue invites manuscript submissions that further our understanding regarding the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of AMR in animal-associated microbiomes. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- The impact of selective pressures from antibiotics and non-antibiotics on AMR dynamics;
- Mechanistic insights into the emergence, persistence, and dissemination of ARB and ARGs in agricultural environments, especially animal-associated environments;
- Innovative strategies for mitigation and improved surveillance under a One Health Framework.
Dr. Guyue Cheng
Dr. Juan Wang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- antibiotic resistance (AMR)
- animal husbandry
- environmental resistome
- livestock microbiome
- co-selection
- agricultural environments
- One Health
- antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs)
- heavy metals
- selective pressures
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