A new editorial published in Animal Diseases on June 29, 2026, argues that climate change is reshaping the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in animal diseases, moving the issue beyond antibiotic use alone. The editorial, titled "Climate change and AMR in animal diseases: a one health perspective on emerging global risks," comes from researchers at the Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. It connects warming temperatures, extreme precipitation, intensive farming, wastewater, and food systems to the spread of resistant bacteria across animals, environments, and people, using non-typhoidal Salmonella as a sentinel pathogen.
The editorial is supported by a companion study published in The Lancet Planetary Health in 2026, which analyzed 488,232 Salmonella genomes from 139 countries or regions spanning 1940 to 2023. The study found that global average antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) abundance in Salmonella increased by 38% over the period. Climate change was associated with a 10% rise in ARG abundance, with increases observed in 82 of 100 countries analyzed. Future modeling indicated that low-emission pathways combined with strengthened antibiotic stewardship could reduce Salmonella ARGs by 24% compared with high-emission scenarios.
The editorial's central contribution is a practical risk map describing a One Health–climate convergence nexus. In this framework, non-typhoidal Salmonella and ARGs circulate among hospitals, intensive agriculture, sewage treatment systems, watersheds, farms, food products, and retail environments. Climate change intensifies this loop through two immediate routes: heat-related physiological effects on bacteria that can favor growth and horizontal gene transfer, and weather-driven movement of contaminated water through agricultural runoff, sewage, rivers, and food chains. The article also raises the possibility that climate stress may influence pathogen adaptation in production systems, though it notes this hypothesis requires broader validation.
For business and technology leaders, the implications are significant. The research suggests that antimicrobial stewardship alone is no longer sufficient to contain AMR. Instead, climate data must be integrated into surveillance and intervention strategies. 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 that may mobilize resistant bacteria. The authors call for a shift from reacting to resistant infections to anticipating where AMR risks may intensify.
Low- and middle-income countries face particular challenges, including the need for affordable sequencing, trained personnel, and fair data-sharing agreements. The work emphasizes 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. The full editorial is available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s44149-026-00255-5.
