One Health Surveillance Approach on Marine Mammal, Marine Environmental and Human Antimicrobial Resistance on the North and Baltic Seas (MARRES)

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health threat that involves complex, opaque transmission processes between humans, animals and the environment. One central pillar in the fight against antimicrobial resistance is to gain knowledge about dissemination and transmission paths of AMR bacteria. However, knowledge on the dissemination of AMR bacteria in wildlife is scarce and systematic data from marine mammals and their natural habitat are missing completely. The MARRES project aims to explore seals and sea water from the North and Baltic Sea in this respect.

The resulting data will be compared with available human and domestic animal research data. On a longer term, surveillance in the marine ecosystem sector will significantly contribute to AMR mitigation strategies and thus to public health.

MARRES Project has been supported by the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT ) (Grant Agreement No S-JPIAMR-24-3) under the framework of the JPIAMR - Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance. The Project is implemented in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry of Education and Science (BMBF) and Polish National Science Center (NCN).

Duration of the project: 01 04 2024 – 31 03 2024 (36 months).
Contribution to the Lithuanian Sea Museum: 53,400 EUR.