Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the food chain remains a critical one health challenge, linking animal health management with environmental sustainability and public health.a key knowledge GAP in…

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded The Research Foundation For The State University Of New York $294,000 on September 1, 2026, under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program (Assistance Listing 10.310) to document the full cycle of on-farm antibiotic residue transport and identify variables influencing antimicrobial resistance generation in environmental soils and water samples. The research will integrate groundwater and soil residue reservoirs into existing surface water and manure transport analyses to close knowledge gaps in how antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic residues move through the animal-manure-soil-water continuum. The project uses dairy farms in the northeastern United States as a case study, leveraging existing data and targeted sampling to build a foundation for broader regional analyses. Performance occurs at Albany, New York, with a period of performance from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2028.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the food chain remains a critical one health challenge, linking animal health management with environmental sustainability and public health.a key knowledge GAP in understanding AMR in agricultural systems is that we rarely construct a complete picture of where resistance and residues reside and how they move. The goals of this proposal are to (1) document the full cycle of on-farm antibiotic residue transport by including groundwater and soil reservoirs into existing surface water and manure transport analyses, and (2) identify variables influencing antimicrobial resistance generation in environmental soils and water samples to better predict impacts of antibiotic usage. By layering groundwater and soil residue reservoirs onto existing surface water and manure reservoirs, we will close the transport loop onwhereresidues may be traveling along the animal-manure-soil water continuum. Dairy farms provide a unique opportunity to address each of these reservoirs as most northeastern dairies grow their own feed on surrounding crop and HAY fields, with direct manure application on the same fields. By levering existing data and supplementing with targeted sampling, we position ourselves to address broader, regional analyses in the future.