2
health. All these efforts made by government, general public and other stakeholders
can be efficiently integrated and encompassed in an increasingly accepted holistic
approach called as ‘One-Health’. In this chapter, we focus on different facets of the
antimicrobial resistance menace and how ‘One-Health’ practices could efficiently
mitigate the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance.
Keywords Antimicrobial resistance · Antibiotic pollution · One-health ·
Antibiotics and agriculture · Horizontal gene transfer · International cooperation ·
Environmental surveillance · Global action plan · Community hygiene · Good
Microbiological practices
1.1 Introduction
The usage of antibiotics and issue of antimicrobial resistance have seen many stages
of development and updates. Antibiotics were discovered in 1928 and the intense
research during the period 1950–1970 has given rise to many present day antibiotics. However, owing to huge financial inputs, regulatory constraints and long development durations, the pharmaceutical research into new antibiotics dampened and
comparatively fewer antibiotics were developed after mid 1980s (Spellberg and
Gilbert 2014). Now a days, antibiotics and/or their residues are being found in
almost all the niches ranging from food (dairy, meat, vegetables, etc.) to sewage,
soil and aquatic water bodies. The high level of antibiotics has been frequently associated with higher antimicrobial resistance (Llor and Bjerrum 2014), thus, main
focus is being given towards reducing the consumption of antibiotics and preventing
indiscriminate usage. High antibiotic usage has been proven to accelerate the rate of
horizontal gene transfer and fixation of antibiotic resistance in microbial species,
leading to emergence of genomic islands specific to antibiotic resistance (Gillings
and Stokes 2012). One striking example is Acinetobacter baumannii which evolved
(over a span of 30 years) from an antibiotic susceptible phenotype to having resistance against multiple antibiotics, by acquiring different genomic islands and 45
antibiotic resistance genes through horizontal gene transfer (Fournier et al. 2006).
The sources of these antibiotics stem from human and veterinary use, production
units and use of antibiotics as growth promoters in agriculture. Many hotspots of
antimicrobial resistance have been identified such as hospitals, pharmaceutical
waste, livestock farms and agricultural setups etc. which culminate in the overlapping ecological domains. These ecological domains witness frequent exchange of
microbes between them. This leads to even rapid emergence of resistant microbes
across these niches. Research into human clinical samples has shown diverse and
increasing trend of antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance has become a
major public health issue and according to a prediction by the organization for
K. S. Singh et al.
health. All these efforts made by government, general public and other stakeholders
can be efficiently integrated and encompassed in an increasingly accepted holistic
approach called as ‘One-Health’. In this chapter, we focus on different facets of the
antimicrobial resistance menace and how ‘One-Health’ practices could efficiently
mitigate the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance.
Keywords Antimicrobial resistance · Antibiotic pollution · One-health ·
Antibiotics and agriculture · Horizontal gene transfer · International cooperation ·
Environmental surveillance · Global action plan · Community hygiene · Good
Microbiological practices
1.1 Introduction
The usage of antibiotics and issue of antimicrobial resistance have seen many stages
of development and updates. Antibiotics were discovered in 1928 and the intense
research during the period 1950–1970 has given rise to many present day antibiotics. However, owing to huge financial inputs, regulatory constraints and long development durations, the pharmaceutical research into new antibiotics dampened and
comparatively fewer antibiotics were developed after mid 1980s (Spellberg and
Gilbert 2014). Now a days, antibiotics and/or their residues are being found in
almost all the niches ranging from food (dairy, meat, vegetables, etc.) to sewage,
soil and aquatic water bodies. The high level of antibiotics has been frequently associated with higher antimicrobial resistance (Llor and Bjerrum 2014), thus, main
focus is being given towards reducing the consumption of antibiotics and preventing
indiscriminate usage. High antibiotic usage has been proven to accelerate the rate of
horizontal gene transfer and fixation of antibiotic resistance in microbial species,
leading to emergence of genomic islands specific to antibiotic resistance (Gillings
and Stokes 2012). One striking example is Acinetobacter baumannii which evolved
(over a span of 30 years) from an antibiotic susceptible phenotype to having resistance against multiple antibiotics, by acquiring different genomic islands and 45
antibiotic resistance genes through horizontal gene transfer (Fournier et al. 2006).
The sources of these antibiotics stem from human and veterinary use, production
units and use of antibiotics as growth promoters in agriculture. Many hotspots of
antimicrobial resistance have been identified such as hospitals, pharmaceutical
waste, livestock farms and agricultural setups etc. which culminate in the overlapping ecological domains. These ecological domains witness frequent exchange of
microbes between them. This leads to even rapid emergence of resistant microbes
across these niches. Research into human clinical samples has shown diverse and
increasing trend of antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance has become a
major public health issue and according to a prediction by the organization for
K. S. Singh et al.