Selection and transfer of antimicrobial resistance in animals and the environment - CALL 2024

Antimicrobial agents are widely used in human and veterinary medicine and there is increasing concern on the impact these substances and their residues can have on the environment, including surface and groundwater, soil and biota. Overall, one of the main effects of these pharmaceuticals is to encourage the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in environmental microbial communities. AMR can also involve human and animal pathogens; indeed, it has been becoming one of the most serious social and economic burdens for public health. In this research topic, the AMR in diverse environments (i.e. livestock and derivatives thereof, soil, water, etc.) is investigated. Studies are mainly carried out using molecular biology techniques, such as real time PCR, and next generation sequencing (NGS) targeting both whole bacterial genomes and metagenomes. These approaches can provide deep insight regarding the entire collection of resistance genes (called resistome) in a given bacterial population or community.

Five publications related to the Research Topic for the candidate interview: 

  1. Crofts T.S. et al. Next-generation approaches to understand and combat the antibiotic resistome. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 15 (2017), 422-434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2017.28.
  2. Cordoni G. et al. Comparative genomics of European avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC). BMC Genomics, 17 (2016), 960. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-016-3289-7
  3. Larsson D.G.J. et al. Antibiotic resistance in the Environment. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 20 (2022), 257-269. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-021-00649-x
  4. Ma F. et al. Use of antimicrobials in food animals and impact of transmission of antimicrobial resistance on humans. Biosafety and Health, 3 (2021) 32-38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bsheal.2020.09.004
  5. Schages L. et al. Distinct resistomes and microbial communities of soils, wastewater treatment plants and households suggest development of antibiotic resistances due to distinct environmental conditions in each environment. Antibiotics, 10 (2021), 514. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics1005051

Contact person

Prof.ssa Alessandra Piccirillo

Department of Comparative Biomedicine and food science (https://www.bca.unipd.it/)
University of Padova
tel.: +39-049-8272793
e-mail: alessandra.piccirillo@unipd.it