Stripping Antibiotic Resistance with STRIPS: Evaluating Prairie Buffer Strips to Mitigate Resistance Genes from Manure-Amended Fields

<p>Our goal is to demonstrate the impact of prairie strips on mitigating the spread of antimicrobials, antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs), and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARBs) to the environment. In the first objective, we will test the impact of prairie strips on manure-associated ARBs and ARGs in controlled laboratory experiments. Objective 2 will evaluate an installed prairie strip as a technology to reduce export of manure-derived pollutants and ARBs and ARGs to surrounding soils and waters. The third objective will be an extension and outreach objective to help implement more strips for the purpose of resistance gene mitigation in addition to their intended purpose of nutrient runoff mitigation from crop fields.</p>