Abstract
Wastewater is considered the most serious source of the spread of antibiotic resistance in the environment. This work, therefore, focuses on the fate and spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in wastewater and the monitoring of multidrug-resistant strains. ARGs were monitored in the nitrification and sedimentation tanks of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and in the dam into which this WWTP flows, at various times. The highest relative abundance was found for the blaTEM > tetW > blaNDM-1 > vanA resistance genes, respectively. An increased concentration of tetracycline (up to 96.00 ng/L) and ampicillin (up to 19.00 ng/L) was found in water samples compared to other antibiotics detected. The increased incidence of seven ARGs and four antibiotics was observed in the November and December sampling times. Isolated ampicillin-resistant strains showed a high degree of resistance to ampicillin (61.2% of the total isolates had a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ≥ 20 mg/mL). In 87.8% of isolates, out of the total number, the occurrence of two or more ARGs was confirmed. These multidrug-resistant strains were most often identified as Aeromonas sp. This strain could represent a significant role in the spread of multidrug resistance through wastewater in the environment.
Highlights
Antibiotic resistance is considered a serious public health problem as it prevents the effective treatment of bacterial infections and can cause high mortality [1]
To observe the effectiveness of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in removing antibiotics during treatment processes and monitoring the effect of antibiotics on the emergence of resistant strains, the levels of the antibiotics ampicillin, penicillin G, penicillin V, and tetracycline were analyzed in all water samples
Our study showed a decrease in tetracycline concentrations in all dam waters, which can be considered as a high effect of the WWTP treatment process
Summary
Antibiotic resistance is considered a serious public health problem as it prevents the effective treatment of bacterial infections and can cause high mortality [1]. The main collectors of municipal and hospital wastewater are wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) [3]. Due to their specific properties and technological functioning, WWTPs are determined to be one of the most serious reservoirs and sources of resistance. These are places where there may be an accumulation of antibiotics, antibioticresistant bacteria (ARB), and antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs), and an intense spread of antibiotic resistance among bacterial species [4,5,6]. The blaTEM resistance gene, one of the most abundant ARGs, has been found in wastewater and in purified wastewater [13]
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