Transfer of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Between Intermingled Ecological Niches: The Interface Between Humans, Animals and the Environment

Paulo Martins Da Costa, Luís Loureiro and Augusto J. F. Matos
Additional contact information
Paulo Martins Da Costa: ICBAS — Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute, University of Porto, Porto, 4050-313, Portugal
Luís Loureiro: Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
Augusto J. F. Matos: ICBAS — Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute, University of Porto, Porto, 4050-313, Portugal

IJERPH, 2013, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: The use of antimicrobial agents has been claimed to be the driving force for the emergence and spread of microbial resistance. However, several studies have reported the presence of multidrug-resistant bacteria in populations exposed to low levels of antimicrobial drugs or even never exposed. For many pathogens, especially those organisms for which asymptomatic colonization typically precedes infection (e.g., Enterococcus spp. and Escherichia coli ), the selective effects of antimicrobial use can only be understood if we considerer all biological and environmental pathways which enable these bacteria, and the genes they carry, to spread between different biomes. This ecological framework provides an essential perspective for formulating antimicrobial use policies, precisely because it encompasses the root causes of these problems rather than merely their consequences.

Keywords: antimicrobials; resistance; humans; animals; environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/1/278/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/1/278/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:10:y:2013:i:1:p:278-294:d:22772

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().