ArticlePLOS global public health2026
Animal husbandry and environmental conditions are associated with cefotaxime-resistant Escherichia coli in yard soil in peri-urban Malawi.
Article in PLOS global public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Antimicrobial-resistantmedRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
- Update of
Authors and funding
21 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Soil is an important reservoir for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and increasingly recognized as a pathogen transmission pathway, especially for young children. However, drivers of domestic AMR soil contamination in low-income countries remain unidentified. We conducted a cross-sectional study with 237 peri-urban households in southern Malawi to identify household and environmental factors associated with cefotaxime-resistant E. coli in yard soil. Enumerators employed structured surveys and sampled 900 cm2 of yard soil per household. We enumerated cefotaxime-resistant E. coli in soil using IDEXX Quanti-Tray/2000 with Colilert-18 and cefotaxime supplement, and assessed associations with household sanitation, animal ownership and management, child health and antibiotic use, and weather. Among children <5 years, 25-90% played, ate, slept, or crawled on the ground outside. Of 233 soil samples, 69% harbored cefotaxime-resistant E. coli at a mean of 0.90 log10 most probable number (MPN) per dry gram. Compared to households without animals, household soil had approximately 0.50-log lower mean cefotaxime-resistant E. coli concentration if animals were enclosed at night and 0.40-log higher concentration if they were not (p-values<0.05). Mean cefotaxime-resistant E. coli concentrations were approximately 0.90-log lower if soil was dry at the time of collection, 0.70-log lower if the household was in the top wealth quintile (p-values<0.005), and 0.30-log lower if any child in the household used antibiotics in the last four weeks (p-value = 0.05). There were no associations with daytime animal confinement, household sanitation, temperature, and ambient humidity. Findings suggest that animal husbandry and soil moisture had stronger associations with cefotaxime-resistant E. coli in soil compared to sanitation or antibiotic use, underscoring the importance of a One Health approach to AMR that incorporates domestic animals and environmental factors. Given children's frequent soil contact, our findings also highlight potential AMR acquisition from soilborne pathways. Studies should quantify soilborne AMR exposure and evaluate associations with animal management/enclosure practices.
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.