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Sewage surveillance of antibiotic resistance holds both opportunities and challenges

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 21, pages 213–214 (2023)Cite this article

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A proposed European Union-directive requests that member states monitor antibiotic resistance at all sewage treatment plants serving >100,000 people. Sewage surveillance could provide information on the resistance situation in the underlying population and on environmental transmission risks. There are opportunities to make such surveillance data more informative and actionable, but there are also challenges.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Infectious Diseases, Institute for Biomedicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    D. G. Joakim Larsson & Carl-Fredrik Flach

  2. Centre for Antibiotic Resistance Research at University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    D. G. Joakim Larsson & Carl-Fredrik Flach

  3. One Health Trust, Washington, DC, USA

    Ramanan Laxminarayan

Authors
  1. D. G. Joakim Larsson
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  2. Carl-Fredrik Flach
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  3. Ramanan Laxminarayan
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Correspondence to D. G. Joakim Larsson.

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Larsson, D.G.J., Flach, CF. & Laxminarayan, R. Sewage surveillance of antibiotic resistance holds both opportunities and challenges. Nat Rev Microbiol 21, 213–214 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-022-00835-5

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