Climate change is reshaping the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in animal diseases, according to a new editorial published in Animal Diseases on June 29, 2026. The editorial, titled "Climate change and AMR in animal diseases: a one health perspective on emerging global risks," argues that warming temperatures, floods, intensive farming, wastewater, and food systems are connecting resistant bacteria across animals, environments, and people. Using non-typhoidal Salmonella as a sentinel, the authors set out a One Health framework for understanding how climate pressures may weaken ecological barriers that once helped contain AMR.
The editorial is supported by a companion global genomic study published in The Lancet Planetary Health in 2026, which analyzed 488,232 Salmonella genomes from 139 countries or regions across 1940–2023. The study found that global average antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) abundance in Salmonella increased by 38%, with climate change associated with a 10% rise in ARG abundance across 82 of 100 countries analyzed. Future modeling suggested that low-emission pathways, combined with strengthened antibiotic stewardship, could reduce Salmonella ARGs by 24% compared with high-emission scenarios.
Traditionally, AMR has been addressed through antimicrobial stewardship, infection control, and better prescribing. However, animal-disease systems are increasingly exposed to pressures that do not fit within a single sector. Rising temperatures can favor bacterial growth and horizontal gene transfer, while extreme precipitation can disperse ARGs through agricultural runoff, sewage, rivers, and food chains. Zoonotic pathogens like Salmonella move naturally across these interfaces, making them useful indicators of wider human–animal–environment risks.
The editorial's central contribution is a practical risk map describing a One Health–climate convergence nexus in which Salmonella and ARGs circulate among hospitals, intensive agriculture, sewage treatment systems, watersheds, farms, food products, and retail environments. Climate change can intensify this loop through heat-related physiological effects on bacteria and weather-driven movement of contaminated water. The authors also raise the possibility that climate stress may influence pathogen adaptation in production systems, a hypothesis requiring broader validation.
The findings support a three-part response: climate-informed genomic surveillance, targeted animal-health interventions, and integrated cross-sectoral policies. The authors call for a shift from reacting to resistant infections to anticipating where AMR risks may intensify. Antimicrobial stewardship remains the foundation, but it should be paired with climate data, animal-health monitoring, and environmental surveillance. One Health should guide practical decisions—from where genomes are sequenced to how farms, wastewater systems, and food-safety programs are prepared for climate extremes.
For policy and practice, veterinary services can use climate signals to identify high-risk periods for animal-disease outbreaks and resistant infections. Public-health agencies can connect genomic surveillance with rainfall, temperature, wastewater, livestock, and antimicrobial-use data. Food-safety systems can strengthen monitoring after floods, heat waves, and other disruptions. For low- and middle-income countries, the papers highlight the need for affordable sequencing, trained personnel, and fair data-sharing agreements. Most importantly, the work suggests that climate mitigation, animal health, sanitation, and antibiotic stewardship should be treated as one interconnected investment in global health security, especially in regions where climate vulnerability and AMR burden overlap.
