Environmental antimicrobial resistance: review of biological methods – summary

This project reviewed methods for the detection of environmental microorganisms that have become resistant to the effects of antimicrobial compounds.

The review identified methods that could be assessed as part of pilot scale environmental surveillance at three river catchments in England. In particular,

• The use of individual bacterial and fungal species as rapid indicators of the wider burden of AMR in samples.
• Molecular genetics methods which could also be used to determine trends in total AMR.
• Chemical analyses to relate how antimicrobial substances select for AMR in the environment.

The review discusses the benefits and drawbacks of each method some of which have been used in our further work investigating the presence of AMR organisms in environmental settings.