<p>The screening wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 RNA has emerged in over 50 countries as a tool for tracking COVID-19 in population alongside traditional clinical monitoring, highlighting the usefulness of (waste)water-based epidemiology (WBE). Facing the significant problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the monitoring of environmental AMR in epidemiologic aim is still poorly documented. As for COVID-19, WBE could be a proxy of AMR epidemiology in the context of lack of biological data i) at the community level in high income-country and ii) in lower middle-income country when resistance is often non-documented in human infections.</p><p>The aim of the study is to explore AMR from surface water running in or in the vicinity of two contrasted densely urbanized areas: Lez watershed, Montpellier, France and Djibi watershed, Abidjan, Cote d&#8217;Ivoire.</p><p>From June to November 2015, we collected 24 water samples, on 2 urban rivers in the Heart of Montpellier city: 2 sampling sites around the university hospital of Montpellier, 1 site downstream a public park and 1 site in a residential area. From July 2018 to November 2019, we collected 11 water samples in Djibi watershed (n = 11): 2 peri-urban sampling sites just outside of the Abidjan-urban area, 1 site downstream a wetland area and 1 site upstream the Aghien Lagoon.</p><p>In both cities, 100% of samples were positive for <em>bla<sub>TEM</sub></em>, an endemic beta-lactamase-encoding gene. In Montpellier, <em>bla<sub>SHV</sub></em> and <em>bla<sub>CTX-M</sub></em> were positive in 21% of samples. In Djibi watershed, 54% and 27% of samples were positive to both <em>bla<sub>SHV</sub></em> and <em>bla<sub>CTX-M</sub></em>, respectively. For carbapenemase-encoding genes which confer emerging resistance to last resort antibiotics, data were more contrasted between Montpellier and Abidjan. These genes were sparingly detected in Montpellier when the carbapenemase-encoding genes <em>bla<sub>KPC</sub>, bla<sub>NDM</sub>, bla<sub>OXA-48</sub></em> were each detected in 27% of samples in Djibi watershed samples.</p><p>The worrisome epidemiology of AMR requires to identify AMR environmental reservoirs. AMR in urban settings could represent a hot spot in the dynamics of the epidemiological cycle of AMR. The development of WBE could help to cartography AMR at a small-territory scale to help for medical decisions, alerts and implementation of preventive measures.</p>
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.