Research projects

The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance impact global health, reduce productivity in farms, and threaten food security. Reuse4Food addresses under a One Health approach the challenge of integrating public and environmental health, with the goal of protecting the global health in the fight against antibiotic resistance and guaranteeing food safety. The interdisciplinarity of Reuse4Food allows for the unprecedented assessment of contamination associated with unplanned water reuse in the agricultural scenario. Reuse4Food is based on the premise that it is possible to ensure the food quality and prevent contamination by antibiotics and antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) by having a comprehensive understanding of their environmental behaviour, sensitive detection tools, and adequate quantitative risk assessment.

Reuse4Food will study the spread, fate, impact, and natural attenuation processes of antibiotics, ARB, and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the water-soil-plant continuum in two unplanned water reuse scenarios, conventional agriculture and agroecology. The ambitious program of activities will be developed from the spatial to the micrometric scale of soil aggregates. Reuse4Food will use emerging powerful tools of molecular biology to provide a global vision of the transmission of ARGs along the food chain. Unprecedented in the literature, Reuse4Food will evaluate the behaviour of antibiotics in clinical development pipeline and their potential risk to food safety and soil health. Attenuation strategies will be assessed using isolated bacteria capable of biodegrading antibiotics. Reuse4Food will promote the responsible use and disposal of antibiotics through various citizen science and outreach activities.