International audience1. 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

Acquired carbapenemases currently pose one of the most worrying public health threats related to antimicrobial resistance. A NDM‐1‐producing Salmonella Corvallis was reported in 2013 in a wild raptor. Further research was needed to understand the role of wild birds in the transmission of bacteria resistant to carbapenems. Our aim was to investigate the presence of carbapenem‐resistant Escherichia coli in gulls from southern France. In 2012, we collected 158 cloacal swabs samples from two gull species: yellow‐legged gulls (Larus michahellis) that live in close contact with humans and slender‐billed gulls (Chroicocephalus genei) that feed at sea. We molecularly compared the carbapenem‐resistant bacteria we isolated through culture on selective media with the carbapenem‐susceptible strains sampled from both gull species and from stool samples of humans hospitalized in the study area. The genes coding for carbapenemases were tested by multiplex PCR. We isolated 22 carbapenem‐resistant E. coli strains from yellow‐legged gulls while none were isolated from slender‐billed gulls. All carbapenem‐resistant isolates were positive for bla VIM ‐1 gene. VIM‐1‐producing E. coli were closely related to carbapenem‐susceptible strains isolated from the two gull species but also to human strains. Our results are alarming enough to make it urgently necessary to determine the contamination source of the bacteria we identified. More generally, our work highlights the need to develop more bridges between studies focusing on wildlife and humans in order to improve our knowledge of resistant bacteria transmission routes.