scholarly journals Abundance and Dynamic Distribution of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in the Environment Surrounding a Veterinary Antibiotic Manufacturing Site

Antibiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1361
Author(s):  
Junjie Miao ◽  
Zhendong Yin ◽  
Yuqin Yang ◽  
Yiwen Liang ◽  
Xiangdong Xu ◽  
...  

Background: Antibiotics releasing from the manufacturing sites to the surrounding environment has been identified as a risk factor for the development of antibiotic resistance of bacterial pathogens. However, the knowledge of the abundance and distribution of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) influenced by antibiotic pollution is still limited. Methods: In this work, the contamination by resistance genes of the environmental media including an urban river and soil along the river located near the sewage outlet of a veterinary antibiotic manufacturing site in Shijiazhuang, China, was assessed. The abundance and dynamic distribution of ARGs in different sampling points and during different seasons were analyzed using fluorescent quantitative PCR method (qPCR). Results: A total of 11 resistance genes, one integron and one transposon were detected in water and soils around the pharmaceutical factory, and among which, the sulfonamide resistance genes sul1 and β-lactam resistance genes blaSHV were the most abundant genes. The relative abundance of ARGs in both river water and soil samples collected at the downstream of the sewage outlet was higher than that of samples collected at the upstream, non-polluted areas (p < 0.05). The mobile genetic elements (MGEs) integron in river was significantly correlated (p < 0.05) with the relative abundance of ARGs. Conclusions: The results indicate that the discharge of waste from antibiotic manufacturing site may pose a risk of horizontal transfer of ARGs.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Uyaguari

Abstract Background: Wastewater treatment plants are an essential part of maintaining the health and safety of the general public. However, they are also an anthropogenic source of antibiotic resistance genes. In this study, we characterized the resistome, the distribution of classes 1-3 integron-integrase genes (intI1, intI2, and intI3) as mobile genetic element biomarkers, and the bacterial and phage community compositions in the North End Sewage Treatment Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Samples were collected from raw sewage, returned activated sludge, final effluent, and dewatered sludge. A total of 28 bacterial and viral metagenomes were sequenced over two seasons, fall and winter. Integron-integrase genes, the 16S rRNA gene, and the coliform beta-glucuronidase gene were also quantified during this time period. Results: Bacterial classes observed above 1% relative abundance in all treatments were Actinobacteria (39.24% ± 0.25%), Beta-proteobacteria (23.99% ± 0.16%), Gamma-proteobacteria (11.06% ± 0.09%), and Alpha-proteobacteria (9.18 ± 0.04%). Families within the Caudovirales order: Siphoviridae (48.69% ± 0.10%), Podoviridae (23.99% ± 0.07%), and Myoviridae (19.94% ± 0.09%) were the dominant phage observed throughout the NESTP. The most abundant bacterial genera (in terms of average percent relative abundance) in influent, returned activated sludge, final effluent, and sludge, respectively, includes Mycobacterium (37.4%, 18.3%, 46.1%, and 7.7%), Acidovorax (8.9%, 10.8%, 5.4%, and 1.3%), and Polaromonas (2.5%, 3.3%, 1.4%, and 0.4%).The most abundant class of antibiotic resistance in bacterial samples was tetracycline resistance (17.86% ± 0.03%) followed by peptide antibiotics (14.24% ± 0.03%), and macrolides (10.63% ± 0.02%). Similarly, the phage samples contained a higher prevalence of macrolide (30.12% ± 0.30%), peptide antibiotic (10.78% ± 0.13%), and tetracycline (8.69% ± 0.11%) resistance. In addition, intI1 was the most abundant integron-integrase gene throughout treatment (1.14x104 gene copies/mL) followed by intI3 (4.97x103 gene copies/mL) while intI2 abundance remained low (6.4x101 gene copies/mL).Conclusions: The wastewater treatment plant successfully reduced the abundance of bacteria, DNA bacteriophages, and antibiotic resistance genes although many of them still remained in effluent and biosolids. The presence of integron-integrase genes throughout treatment and in effluent suggests that antibiotic resistance genes could be actively disseminating resistance between both environmental and pathogenic bacteria.


2021 ◽  
Vol 233 ◽  
pp. 01130
Author(s):  
PAN Xin-rong ◽  
CHEN Lei ◽  
YU Heng ◽  
ZUO Jian-e

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) existing in livestock and poultry manure have the risk to spread and proliferate. This might endanger people’s health. The common treatment of livestock and poultry manure is anaerobic digestion. But the change of ARGs during anaerobic digestion require further study, and the effect of digestate fertilization to the antibiotic resistance of cropland soil is still unclear. This study investigated the pig manure, biogas liquid, biogas residue, and cropland soils fertilized with and without digestate. The results showed that, the relative abundance of ARGs in biogas residue was much higher than other samples. The average relative abundance was 1.46×10-1 copy ratio (copy of ARG/copy of 16S rRNA gene), and the total relative abundance was 3.07 copy ratio. There were 21 ARGs detected in the 5 samples. 11 of them were shared by the 5 samples. The main ARGs were aminoglycoside, chloramphenicol, sulfonamide, tetracycline, and multidrug. Aminoglycoside had the highest relative abundance, and the total relative abundance in all samples was 1.18 copy ratio. Anaerobic digestion increased the total relative abundance of ARGs in pig manure from 1.14×10-1 to 1.70×10-1 copy ratio. Fertilization of digestate increased the total relative abundance of AGRs in soil from 3.27×10-1 to 7.29×10-1 copy ratio.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3477
Author(s):  
Changzhi Wang ◽  
Pei-Ying Hong

Water reuse is increasingly pursued to alleviate global water scarcity. However, the wastewater treatment process does not achieve full removal of biological contaminants from wastewater, hence microorganisms and their genetic elements can be disseminated into the reclaimed water distribution systems (RWDS). In this study, reclaimed water samples are investigated via metagenomics to assess their bacterial diversity, metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) at both point of entry (POE) and point of use (POU) in 3 RWDS. The number of shared bacterial orders identified by metagenome was higher at the POE than POU among the three sites, indicating that specific conditions in RWDS can cause further differentiation in the microbial communities at the end of the distribution system. Two bacterial orders, namely Rhizobiales and Sphingomonadales, had high replication rates in two of the examined RWDS (i.e., site A and B), and were present in higher relative abundance in POU than at POE. In addition, MAG and ARG relative abundance exhibited a strong correlation (R2 = 0.58) in POU, indicating that bacteria present in POU may have a high incidence of ARG. Specifically, resistance genes associated with efflux pump mechanisms (e.g., adeF and qacH) increased in its relative abundance from POU to POE at two of the RWDS (i.e., site A and B). When correlated with the water quality data that suggests a significantly lower dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration at site D than the other two RWDS, the metagenomic data suggest that low DOC is needed to maintain the biological stability of reclaimed water along the distribution network.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1423
Author(s):  
Hana Stiborova ◽  
Martina Kracmarova ◽  
Tereza Vesela ◽  
Marta Biesiekierska ◽  
Jindrich Cerny ◽  
...  

The reuse of stabilized (under thermophilic conditions) sewage sludge and manure on agricultural soils is a common practice. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risks associated with their repeated applications on the spread of pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) that encode resistance to tetracycline (tetA and tetW), sulphonamide (sul1 and sul2), erythromycin (ermB), vancomycin (vanA) and integron genetic element (intI1). The trial fields has been regularly fertilized every 3rd year since 1996 with manure (MF; 330 kg N/ha) and sewage sludge (SF; 330 kg N/ha and SF3; 990 kg N/ha). Unfertilized soil (CF) served as a control. Samples were collected at different time points: (i) right before fertilization (which was also 3 years after the last fertilization), (ii) 5 months after fertilization, and (iii) 11 months after fertilization. The relative abundance of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) assigned to potentially pathogenic bacteria was low (0.3% and 0.25% in sludge and manure, respectively), and no association with the application of these fertilizers was found. On the other hand, our data indicate that an increased relative abundance of the ARGs sul1 and tetW was significantly associated with these fertilizer applications, and sul1 was increased in all treatments regardless of the time. It is suggested that sul1 should be monitored in organically fertilized soils to prevent its spread and possible further accumulation in crops.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Chen ◽  
Mengyu Zhang ◽  
Daliang Ning ◽  
Joy D Van Nostrand ◽  
Yunfeng Yang ◽  
...  

High concentrations of antibiotics in antibiotic production wastewater can cause the widespread transmission of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Here, we collected a set of time series samples from a cephalosporin production wastewater treatment plant (X-WWTP), the subsequent municipal WWTP (Y-WWTP) and the receiving stream. Using a functional gene microarray, GeoChip 5.0, which contains multiple homologous probes for 18 ARG and 13 antibiotic metabolism gene (AMG) families, we found that more than 50% of homologous probes for 20 gene families showed a relative abundance higher in X-WWTP, while only 10–20% showed lower relative abundance. The different response patterns of homologous ARG (hARGs) within the same ARG family imply environmental selection pressures are only responsible for the ARG enrichment and spread of some specific instead of all ARG-containing microorganisms, which contradicted the traditionally held belief that environmental selection pressures, especially antibiotic concentration, select for all ARG-containing microorganisms thereby selecting different hARGs in the same ARG family in an undifferentiated way. Network results imply that hARGs from three β_lactamase families enriched under the selection pressure of high cephalosporin antibiotic concentrations in X-WWTP formed positively correlated homologous ARG clusters (pohARGCs). The pohARGCs were also enhanced in the sediment of the receiving stream. The enrichment of hARGs from three β_lactamase families was likely through microorganisms belonging to the Betaproteobacteria genus.


Author(s):  
Caihong Huang ◽  
Zhurui Tang ◽  
Beidou Xi ◽  
Wenbing Tan ◽  
Wei Guo ◽  
...  

AbstractAntibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have been diffusely detected in several kinds of organic solid waste, such as livestock manure, sludge, antibiotic fermentation residues, and food waste, thus attracting great attention. Aerobic composting, which is an effective, harmless treatment method for organic solid waste to promote recycling, has been identified to also aid in ARG reduction. However, the effect of composting in removing ARGs from organic solid waste has recently become controversial. Thus, this article summarizes and reviews the research on ARGs in relation to composting in the past 5 years. ARGs in organic solid waste could spread in different environmental media, including soil and the atmosphere, which could widen environmental risks. However, the conventional composting technology had limited effect on ARGs removal from organic solid waste. Improved composting processes, such as hyperthermophilic temperature composting, could effectively remove ARGs, and the HGT of ARGs and the microbial communities are identified as vital influencing factors. Currently, during the composting process, ARGs were mainly affected by three response pathways, (I) “Microenvironment-ARGs”; (II) “Microenvironment-microorganisms-ARGs”; (III) “Microorganisms-horizontal gene transfer-ARGs”, respectively. Response pathway II had been studied the most which was believed that microbial community was an important factor affecting ARGs. In response pathway III, mainly believed that MGEs played an important role and paid less attention to eARGs. Further research on the role and impact of eARGs in ARGs may be considered in the future. It aims to provide support for further research on environmental risk control of ARGs in organic solid waste.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Hongwei Sun

Due to the irrational use of antibiotics, antibiotic resistance genes are widely present in the environmental media of our lives. Antibiotics have potential environmental and public health risks, and they bring harm to the environment in which we live. Sewage treatment plants are antibiotic resistance genes’ repository and important process for removing antibiotic resistance genes. The different processes they use in sewage treatment plants, the effect of removing antibiotic resistance genes is also different. In order to discuss the impact of different processes on the removal of antibiotic resistance genes, we selected three wastewater treatment plant samples with different treatment processes for testing, and used the fluorescence quantitative analysis technology of 16SrRNA gene to study the abundance, distribution and diversity of antibiotic resistance genes in different treatment processes. The results showed that the AAO process, the oxidation ditch process, and the CASS process all have high removal effect on antibiotic resistance genes, they all can reduce the diversity and abundance of antibiotic resistance genes, and the oxidation ditch process is the best process of the three treatment processes.


2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Jankowski ◽  
Jaydon Gan ◽  
Tri Le ◽  
Michaela McKennitt ◽  
Audrey Garcia ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Wastewater treatment plants are an essential part of maintaining the health and safety of the general public. However, they are also an anthropogenic source of antibiotic resistance genes. In this study, we characterized the resistome, the distribution of classes 1–3 integron-integrase genes (intI1, intI2, and intI3) as mobile genetic element biomarkers, and the bacterial and phage community compositions in the North End Sewage Treatment Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Samples were collected from raw sewage, returned activated sludge, final effluent, and dewatered sludge. A total of 28 bacterial and viral metagenomes were sequenced over two seasons, fall and winter. Integron-integrase genes, the 16S rRNA gene, and the coliform beta-glucuronidase gene were also quantified during this time period. Results Bacterial classes observed above 1% relative abundance in all treatments were Actinobacteria (39.24% ± 0.25%), Beta-proteobacteria (23.99% ± 0.16%), Gamma-proteobacteria (11.06% ± 0.09%), and Alpha-proteobacteria (9.18 ± 0.04%). Families within the Caudovirales order: Siphoviridae (48.69% ± 0.10%), Podoviridae (23.99% ± 0.07%), and Myoviridae (19.94% ± 0.09%) were the dominant phage observed throughout the NESTP. The most abundant bacterial genera (in terms of average percent relative abundance) in influent, returned activated sludge, final effluent, and sludge, respectively, includes Mycobacterium (37.4%, 18.3%, 46.1%, and 7.7%), Acidovorax (8.9%, 10.8%, 5.4%, and 1.3%), and Polaromonas (2.5%, 3.3%, 1.4%, and 0.4%). The most abundant class of antibiotic resistance in bacterial samples was tetracycline resistance (17.86% ± 0.03%) followed by peptide antibiotics (14.24% ± 0.03%), and macrolides (10.63% ± 0.02%). Similarly, the phage samples contained a higher prevalence of macrolide (30.12% ± 0.30%), peptide antibiotic (10.78% ± 0.13%), and tetracycline (8.69% ± 0.11%) resistance. In addition, intI1 was the most abundant integron-integrase gene throughout treatment (1.14 × 104 gene copies/mL) followed by intI3 (4.97 × 103 gene copies/mL) while intI2 abundance remained low (6.4 × 101 gene copies/mL). Conclusions Wastewater treatment successfully reduced the abundance of bacteria, DNA phage and antibiotic resistance genes although many antibiotic resistance genes remained in effluent and biosolids. The presence of integron-integrase genes throughout treatment and in effluent suggests that antibiotic resistance genes could be actively disseminating resistance between both environmental and pathogenic bacteria.


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