Abstract
1. The spread of antimicrobial resistance is of major concern for human health and leads togrowing economic costs. While it is increasingly hypothesized that wildlife could play animportant role in antimicrobial-resistant bacteria dynamics, empirical data remain scarce.2. The present work builds on a systematic review of the available data in order to highlightthe main information we have and to suggest research pathways that should be followed ifwe aim to fill the gaps in our current knowledge.3. To achieve this goal, we address four questions: (i) Which resistant bacteria are the mostfrequently observed in wildlife? (ii) How are resistant bacteria exchanged between wildlife andthe other hosts involved? (iii) In which habitats are those resistant bacteria found? (iv) Areresistances associated with certain ecological traits of the host?4. Synthesis and applications. We highlight the strong link existing between the impact ofhuman activities on natural habitats and the carriage of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria bywildlife. Furthermore, we underline that omnivorous, anthropophilic and carnivorous speciesare at high risk of being carriers and potentially spreaders of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.Identifying among those groups key sentinel species may be of particular interest to implementecosystem contamination surveillance. Finally, we discuss possible exchange routes forantimicrobial-resistant bacteria between humans and wildlife. Considering that water is ofmajor importance in those exchanges, a critical way to control antimicrobial resistance spreadmay be to limit aquatic environment contamination by antimicrobial-resistant bacteria andantibiotics.