title: Assessing the Risk of Antibiotic Resistance Transmission from the Environment to Humans: Non-Direct Proportionality between Abundance and Risk.
abstract: The past decade has witnessed a burst of study regarding antibiotic resistance in the environment, mainly in areas under anthropogenic influence. Therefore, impacts of the contaminant resistome, that is, those related to human activities, are now recognized. However, a key issue refers to the risk of transmission of resistance to humans, for which a quantitative model is urgently needed. This opinion paper makes an overview of some risk-determinant variables and raises questions regarding research needs. A major conclusion is that the risks of transmission of antibiotic resistance from the environment to humans must be managed under the precautionary principle, because it may be too late to act if we wait until we have concrete risk values.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Católica Portuguesa, CBQF - Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina - Laboratório Associado, Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: cmanaia@porto.ucp.pt.
authors.forename: Célia M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Manaia
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D004777:Environment; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics*; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
keywords: contaminant resistome; infective dose; limit of quantification; vector bacteria