Taking Stock of Args As Pollutants – Past, Now and Future.

The antimicrobial resistance (AMR) problem has periodically received attention for decades but in the last several years it has reached widespread concern with the emergence of multi-drug resistant human pathogens motivating governments and international agencies to promulgate action plans. What has not been helpful is for different sectors of the antibiotic industry to blame others for the problem, when it is the common principle of selection, and in this case excessive selection, which is common to all industries, that is the heart of the problem. This recent attention to the AMR problem has brought to light that antibiotics, and more significantly, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), are environmental pollutants, and should be treated much like chemical pollutants that have received attention – and solutions - over the last 40 years. Treating ARGs as pollutants requires some adjustment to thinking since ARGS are not conserved molecules but do amplify, but also biodegrade, and can transfer among biota with certain hosts being major problems. Since major portions of antibiotic use is in animal agriculture, some estimates are 80%, and other sources are environmental – wastewater treatment plant effluent, manufacturing facilities - part of the research needed is by soil/environmental scientists of various expertise. This includes identifying the pathways of the problem in a quantitative way so that risk assessment models can be built and interventions tested for their effectiveness. I will summarize some of the recent progress towards this goal by a coalescing international community of scientific, industry and policy experts.