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Antibiotics since their inception are widely used for medical remedies for human and animals. Due to global economic prosperity, the consumption of antibiotics has increased during the last decade. The misuse, overuse, and application of antibiotics as manure has caused elevated development of multi-antibiotic-resistant bacteria posing environmental pollutant and causes serious risks to human and veterinary health. Antibiotics in the environment affect fundamental ecological processes, biogeochemical cycling and organic contaminant degradation via microbial communities. Antibiotics in the environment affect microbial community structure and function in two ways: direct (short-term) and indirect (long-term). The indirect effect causes the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and bacterial strains which can degrade them by metabolic or cometabolic processes. This review presents the global occurrence of antibiotics in drinking water, sewage water, hospital effluents, river water, sediments, and manures. The results denote the concentration of antibiotics in water samples and soils are in the high range causing chronic toxicity in aquatic systems. This review also provides an overview regarding the antibiotics resistant bacteria and genes developed and regarding their remediation. As the use of antibiotics is expected to increase in the next decade due to the aging population and standard of living, the antibiotics will pose an additional environmental risk.
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