Beyond the hospital: tracing antimicrobial resistance and E. coli population structure across interconnected ecosystems

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global concern, but how much do we know about its circulation beyond human and clinical settings? Wildlife and traditional livestock systems may play an overlooked role in this complex picture, particularly where domestic and wild animals share the same environments.
We are exploring the occurrence and diversity of antimicrobial-resistant Escherichia coli at the livestock–wildlife interface in Portugal, bringing together evidence from animal and environmental samples. While overall resistance levels remain low in the sampled populations, the detection of resistance to critically important antimicrobials and the identification of closely related bacterial lineages across different hosts and environments revealed unexpected connections.
Our findings raise important questions about how AMR circulates between wildlife, livestock and the environment, highlighting the value of a One Health perspective in understanding this interconnected challenge.

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