Veterinary & Environmental Sciences
Veterinary and environmental sciences provide key insights into how antibiotic resistance emerges and spreads across animals, ecosystems, and human populations. By studying antibiotic use in animals and tracking resistant bacteria and genes in soil and water, research reveals connected pathways of resistance and supports a One Health understanding of this shared challenge.
Veterinary sciences play an important role in understanding how antibiotic use in animals contributes to the development of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics are used to treat infections in food-producing animals, companion animals, and, in occassions, wildlife. In these settings, resistant bacteria can emerge and spread between animals, people, and their surroundings. Research within this field focuses on how animal health care, farming practices, and management strategies influence resistance patterns over time.
Monitoring antibiotic resistance in animals provides early signals of changing risks and supports guidance on responsible antibiotic use. Surveillance data help inform animal health policies and contribute to safer food production, while also strengthening the link between animal health and public health perspectives on antibiotic resistance.
Environmental sciences add a crucial dimension by examining what happens to antibiotics and resistant bacteria once they enter the environment. Antibiotic residues, resistant bacteria, and resistance genes are released into soil, water, and sediments through manure, wastewater, agricultural runoff, and other human activities. These environments can act as long-term reservoirs where resistance genes persist and move between different bacterial populations.
Environmental research helps clarify how antibiotic resistance circulates across ecosystems and how humans and animals may be exposed through water, food, or direct contact with the environment. Studying these processes makes it possible to identify pathways that connect animal production systems, natural environments, and human health.
By bringing veterinary and environmental sciences together, research can follow antibiotic resistance across connected systems rather than treating animal health and the environment as separate domains. This combined perspective supports a One Health approach, where animal health, environmental conditions, and human health are understood as closely linked parts of the same challenge.