Division: Special Sessions

Title: Symposium--Soils As the New Frontier in Antibiotic and Antibiotic Resistance Discovery

Lead Community Sponsor:
Cosponsor: Soil Biology & Biochemistry, Soils & Environmental Quality
Community Cosponsor: Animal Agriculture and the Environment Community
Format: Oral Symposium
Keywords:

Session Description: The President recently announced a new national initiative that will double Federal funding for the study of antibiotic resistance in FY2016.  Both national and international organizations have stressed the seriousness of the current global antibiotic resistance (AR) threat, warning that “the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era”. These organizations point out the need for information to bridge gaps in understanding AR transmission through food chains, to better characterize the impact of antibiotic usage in agricultural production and to identify alternatives to current treatment regimes. In order to facilitate the goal of reducing the transfer of antibiotic resistance from agroecosystems to human clinical settings, it is essential to better understand the natural levels, and the fate and transport of specific types of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance through soil. Recent isolation of a novel, “resistance-proof”, antibiotic from natural soils also highlights how soils studies are advancing research to identify naturally-occurring antibiotics; linking field studies and human health advancement. Such linkages are being addressed in ground-breaking scientific research, resulting in a paradigm shift in addressing how agricultural antibiotic use impacts human and environmental health.