One Health Alternate Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System

Using a metagenomic approach, the proposed Alternate Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (AlARMS) delineates the burden of AMR from the longitudinal surveillance of the microbiome, resistome and mobilome at multiple One Health interfaces, comparing and contrasting genomic data from three sources: gut microbiota of vulnerable/at-risk humans, gut microbiota of their major, intensively-produced food animal sources, and associated wastewater microbiota. AlARMS will ascertain whether AMR in wastewater is representative of AMR in the microbiota of vulnerable/at-risk human and animal populations and compare this to AMR in contemporary bacterial isolates from public and private clinical and veterinary laboratories. The project further explores the correlation/association (if any) between antimicrobial use (AMU) and antimicrobial residues in wastewater.  ALARMS also includes an ethnographic study to ascertain socio-behavioural drivers of AMR and uses mathematical modelling to elucidate transmission dynamics.  This system may serve as early-warning and a proxy for conventional AMR surveillance systems in humans, food animals and the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector as well as an alternate AMU monitoring system (AlAUMS).