Abstract
Aquatic ecosystems subjected to anthropic pressures are likely hotspots for emergence or dissemination of antimicrobial resistant bacteria. The city of Montpellier is located on a Mediterranean climate watershed that undergoes strong demographic pressures. The aim of the study is to explore antimicrobial resistance, particularly those of clinical concern, in urban rivers flowing in this urban area. The method developed herein to explore antimicrobial resistance is based on cultural and molecular approaches completed by hydrological, hydrogeological, climatic, and physico-chemical data. Hospital vicinity and urbanization density significantly increase cultivable bacterial community, fecal bacteria from human origin, and prevalence of β-lactamases and extended-spectrum β-lactamases encoding-genes without an increase in 16S rDNA gene abundance. A total of 22 multidrug Enterobacterales have been isolated. All Escherichia coli (n = 10) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (n = 6) isolated on a made-house media carried β-lactamases genes, blaCTX-M being the most prevalent (87%), followed by blaTEM (56%) and blaSHV (37%), 56% of these strains carrying two or three of these genes. In urban settings, water quality and infectious risk are generally linked to wastewater treatment plants effluents. This study shows that running waters in urbanized area contribute to the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance, making these environments a reservoir for resistant bacteria with important consideration.
Highlights
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major problem of public health because of the current increase of resistant bacteria involved in both hospital- and community-acquired infections
This study suggests that urban environment influences antimicrobial resistant bacteria (ARB) and antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in surface waters
Its two main tributaries are (i) the Verdanson River (V), a 7.5 km long watercourse that drains an entirely urbanized catchment area, itself fed by Font d’Aurelle (FA) tributary, and (ii) downstream the Mosson River (M) (35 km long) that flows to the lagoons, itself fed by two peri-urban tributaries the Lantissargues (Lant) and Rieu-Coulon (RC)
Summary
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major problem of public health because of the current increase of resistant bacteria involved in both hospital- and community-acquired infections. Thereby, the Word Health Organization (WHO) priority list of pathogens, against which it is urgent to develop new antibiotics, includes mainly pathogens that display resistance to β-lactams. Gram-negative bacteria resistant to third-generation cephalosporins or to carbapenems are on the top of this list underlying the public health-impact of these resistant bacteria [1]. Resistance to third-generation cephalosporins caused by the production of extended spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) are currently considered as endemic while carbapenemaseproducing bacteria still emerging. ESBL production is a major problem because it confers resistance to most of β-lactams, and it causes multidrug resistances (MDR) when combined with resistance to other classes such as fluoroquinolones, another class under the close surveillance of WHO [2]. In France, 3.6% of invasive isolates of Escherichia coli and
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