Cattle–compost–soil: The transfer of antibiotic resistance in livestock agriculture

The study describes the analysis of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) abundance and the overall bacterial diversity of cattle farm soils that have been treated with animal manure compost. Our results showed that ARB abundance was greatest in fresh manure and significantly lower in composted manure. However, the application of composted manure on paddock soil led to a significant increase in soil ARB abundance. The paper discusses this apparent conflict and raises hypotheses for future studies to explain it.