ReviewEvolutionary applications2015
Antibiotics in agriculture and the risk to human health: how worried should we be?
Review in Evolutionary applications, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 192 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
192 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 558 citations in OpenAlex.
- Extended-spectrum beta-lactam-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis from a One Health perspective.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- An Overview of Antibiotic Resistance and Abiotic Stresses Affecting Antimicrobial Resistance in Agricultural Soils.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Antimicrobial use in cattle and poultry production on occurrence of multidrug resistantFrontiers in veterinary science · 2022Pooled it
- The effect of tylosin on antimicrobial resistance in beef cattle enteric bacteria: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Preventive veterinary medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Are Food Animals Responsible for Transfer of Antimicrobial-Resistant Escherichia coli or Their Resistance Determinants to Human Populations? A Systematic Review.Foodborne pathogens and disease · 2018Pooled it
- Environmental reservoirs and transmission pathways of antimicrobial resistance across the pork production continuum.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Antimicrobial Resistance in the Food Chain: Bridging Knowledge Gaps for Effective Detection and Control.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- A One Health Perspective onMicroorganisms · 2026Review
- Risk of antimicrobial resistance spreading via food loss and waste.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2026Review
- Coccidiosis prevention strategies shape the microbiome, resistome and mobilome composition in the broiler gut.Animal microbiome · 2026Article
- The role of the gut microbiome in antibiotic-driven antimicrobial resistance.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Slaughtered pigs as reservoirs of One Health-relevant antimicrobial resistance genes inFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Longitudinal replicated metagenomic analysis of biosolids-amended soils reveals enrichment of ARGs, virulence factors, and ESKAPE pathogens.npj antimicrobials and resistance · 2025Article
- Prospects for antibiotic-free poultry production in South Africa: An analysis of the enablers and stumbling blocks.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Review
- Whole-Genome Analysis of a Novel Multidrug-ResistantBiology · 2025Article
- "Dusting Off the Cobwebs": Rethinking How We Use New Antibiotics.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Status of antimicrobial resistance in food animals in Pakistan (2016-2020): A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of advanced veterinary and animal research · 2025Article
- Protecting bacteriophages under UV irradiation with brilliant blue FCF for targeted bacterial control.Biofilm · 2025Article
- Molecular detection of blaSHV gene in multidrug resistance ofOpen veterinary journal · 2025Article
132 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The use of antibiotics in agriculture is routinely described as a major contributor to the clinical problem of resistant disease in human medicine. While a link is plausible, there are no data conclusively showing the magnitude of the threat emerging from agriculture. Here, we define the potential mechanisms by which agricultural antibiotic use could lead to human disease and use case studies to critically assess the potential risk from each. The three mechanisms considered are as follows 1: direct infection with resistant bacteria from an animal source, 2: breaches in the species barrier followed by sustained transmission in humans of resistant strains arising in livestock, and 3: transfer of resistance genes from agriculture into human pathogens. Of these, mechanism 1 is the most readily estimated, while significant is small in comparison with the overall burden of resistant disease. Several cases of mechanism 2 are known, and we discuss the likely livestock origins of resistant clones of Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecium, but while it is easy to show relatedness the direction of transmission is hard to assess in robust fashion. More difficult yet to study is the contribution of mechanism 3, which may be the most important of all.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.