Combating Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Animal Health: Strategies and Solutions

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance is emerging as a serious health concern due to reckless use of antibiotics in animal husbandry. Since their inception, antibiotics have revolutionized the medical field but now this increasingly emerging resistance is causing a significant distress worldwide. With rising demand of animal protein, AMU (antimicrobial usage) in animal farming has substantially increased ultimately affecting animals’ microbiota and providing selective pressure for emergence of resistant microbes. Resistant pathogens by utilizing horizontal gene transfer mechanism pass their resistant genes to other microbes. There is an urgent need to discuss this issue under one health and adopt better surveillance systems to monitor AMU and AMR in animals to lower this escalating graph. Finding solution to address AMR adequately is complicated, success will involve communities, nations and individuals all working together to make sure that world should continue to have an armamentarium of effective antimicrobials that will sustain in animals and human both now and in future