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Environmental and Public Health Implications of Water Reuse: Antibiotics, Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes.

ABSTRACT: Water scarcity is a global problem, and is particularly acute in certain regions like Africa, the Middle East, as well as the western states of America. A breakdown on water usage revealed that 70% of freshwater supplies are used for agricultural irrigation. The use of reclaimed water as an alternative water source for agricultural irrigation would greatly alleviate the demand on freshwater sources. This paradigm shift is gaining momentum in several water scarce countries like Saudi Arabia. However, microbial problems associated with reclaimed water may hinder the use of reclaimed water for agricultural irrigation. Of particular concern is that the occurrence of antibiotic residues in the reclaimed water can select for antibiotic resistance genes among the microbial community. Antibiotic resistance genes can be associated with mobile genetic elements, which in turn allow a promiscuous transfer of resistance traits from one bacterium to another. Together with the pathogens that are present in the reclaimed water, antibiotic resistant bacteria can potentially exchange mobile genetic elements to create the "perfect microbial storm". Given the significance of this issue, a deeper understanding of the occurrence of antibiotics in reclaimed water, and their potential influence on the selection of resistant microorganisms would be essential. In this review paper, we collated literature over the past two decades to determine the occurrence of antibiotics in municipal wastewater and livestock manure. We then discuss how these antibiotic resistant bacteria may impose a potential microbial risk to the environment and public health, and the knowledge gaps that would have to be addressed in future studies. Overall, the collation of the literature in wastewater treatment and agriculture serves to frame and identify potential concerns with respect to antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria, and antibiotic resistance genes in reclaimed water.

SUBMITTER: Hong PY

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4790270 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Environmental and Public Health Implications of Water Reuse: Antibiotics, Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes.

Hong Pei-Ying PY Al-Jassim Nada N Ansari Mohd Ikram MI Mackie Roderick I RI

Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) 20130731 3

Water scarcity is a global problem, and is particularly acute in certain regions like Africa, the Middle East, as well as the western states of America. A breakdown on water usage revealed that 70% of freshwater supplies are used for agricultural irrigation. The use of reclaimed water as an alternative water source for agricultural irrigation would greatly alleviate the demand on freshwater sources. This paradigm shift is gaining momentum in several water scarce countries like Saudi Arabia. Howe ...[more]

PMID: 27029309

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Project description:Wastewater from hospitals should be monitored precisely and treated properly before discharge and reuse to avoid epidemic and pandemic complications, as it contains hazardous pollutants for the ecosystem. Antibiotic residues in treated hospital wastewater effluents constitute a major environmental concern since they resist various wastewater treatment processes. The emergence and spread of multi-drug-resistant bacteria, that cause public health problems, are therefore always a major concern. The aims and objectives of this study were mainly to characterize the chemical and microbial properties of the hospital effluent of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) before discharge to the environment. Special attention was paid to the presence of multiple resistant bacteria and the effects of hospital effluent reuse in irrigation on zucchini as an economically important plant. The risk of cell-free DNA carrying antibiotic resistance genes contained in the hospital effluent as a long-lasting hazard had been discussed. In this study, 21 bacterial strains were isolated from the effluent of a hospital WWTP. Isolated bacteria were evaluated for multi-drug resistance ability against 5 antibiotics (Tetracycline, Ampicillin, Amoxicillin, Chloramphenicol, and Erythromycin) at a concentration of 25 ppm. Out of them, three isolates (AH-03, AH-07, and AH-13) were selected because they recorded the highest growth in presence of tested antibiotics. Selected isolates were identified using 16S rRNA gene sequence homology as Staphylococcus haemolyticus (AH-03), Enterococcus faecalis (AH-07), and Escherichia coli (AH-13). Their susceptibility to ascending concentrations of tested antibiotics indicated that they were all susceptible at a concentration above 50 ppm. Results of the greenhouse experiment regarding the effect of hospital WWTP effluent reuse on zucchini plant fresh weights compared to that irrigated with fresh water indicated that the former recorded a limited increase in total fresh weights (6.2 g and 5.3 g/plant, respectively). Our results demonstrated the low impact of the reuse of Hospital WWTP effluent in agriculture irrigation compared to its greater risk in transferring multiple antibiotic bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes to soil bacteria through natural transformation.

Dataset Information

Environmental and Public Health Implications of Water Reuse: Antibiotics, Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes.

Publications

Environmental and Public Health Implications of Water Reuse: Antibiotics, Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes.

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