OHT researcher Thomas P. Van Boeckel co-authored a study that identified China, India, Brazil, Chile, central Asia, and southeastern Africa as hotspots of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in food animals. Tetracycline had the highest average resistance prevalence in Escherichia coli (59 percent) and non-typhoidal Salmonella species (54 percent) among food animals in low- and middle-income countries. Future projections revealed that tetracycline and ampicillin could exceed critical levels in Africa and South America, while ampicillin and sulphonamides pose the greatest risk in Asia.

Action at the policy level should be taken to reduce antimicrobial consumption, particularly of the seven medically important antimicrobials highlighted in this study, in these newly identified AMR hotspots. Further AMR interventions and surveillance measures must be implemented to realize the 3rd Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on AMR’s global target of reducing antimicrobials used in agrifood systems by 30-50 percent by 2030.

Read the article in Nature Communications here.