Abstract
Maumee River, the major tributary in the western basin of Lake Erie, serves as one of major sources of freshwater in the area, supplying potable, recreational, and industrial water. In this study we collected water samples from four sites in the Maumee River Bay between 2016–2017 and E. coli was isolated, enumerated, and analyzed for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and multidrug resistance (MDR). Strikingly, 95% of the total isolates were found to be resistant to at least one antibiotic. A very high resistance to the drugs cephalothin (95.3%), ampicillin (38.3%), tetracycline (8.8%), gentamicin (8.2%), ciprofloxacin (4.2%), cefoperazone (4%), and sulfamethoxazole (1.5%) was observed within isolates from all four sampling sites. Percentages of AMR and MDR was consistently very high in the summer and fall months, whereas it was observed to be lowest in the winter. A remarkably high number of the isolates were detected to be MDR—95% resistant to ≥1 antibiotic, 43% resistant to ≥2 antibiotics, 15% resistant to ≥3 antibiotics, 4.9% resistant to ≥4 antibiotic and 1.2% resistant to ≥5 antibiotics. This data will serve in better understanding the environmental occurrence and dissemination of AMR/MDR in the area and assist in improving and establishing control measures.
Highlights
Bacteria are proficient in developing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) when exposed to antibiotics through processes such as horizontal gene transfer between related or nonrelated species [1,2], or by genetic transfer mechanisms of transformations, transduction, or conjugation [2,3,4]
Sampling month was significantly associated with differences in mean E. coli levels
Bacterial strains, antibiotic resistant genes, antibiotic agents, specific microbial species, and environmental sources of AMR dissemination to help to eventually enable the modeling of antibiotic resistance transfer through the environment. This is the first study identifying the incidences of AMR and multidrug resistance (MDR) in the Maumee
Summary
Bacteria are proficient in developing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) when exposed to antibiotics through processes such as horizontal gene transfer between related or nonrelated species [1,2], or by genetic transfer mechanisms of transformations, transduction, or conjugation [2,3,4]. Emergence of AMR and MDR bacteria coupled with a dearth of novel antibiotics has led to several complex public health issues including increased hospital stays, lack of treatment options, and increased mortality and morbidity rates [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19]. It is critically important from public health perspectives to track the sources of AMR and MDR bacteria in order to implement proper management strategies to control their occurrence and distribution. The role of urban wastewater treatment plants as a highly favorable setting for facilitating development of AMR and MDR within bacterial populations and their subsequent release into the environment through direct effluents has been pointed out in the recent years [11,21,22,23,24]
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