Antibiotics in the Environment: Causes and Consequences

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 2702

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Sciences, Indiana University Kokomo, Kokomo, IN 46902, USA
Interests: Cellular Physiology of Bacteria and Environmental Microbiology; elucidation of biodegradation pathways for organic pollutants; isolation of novel organic pollutant degrading bacteria; microbial genome analysis; bacterial stress response; and multicellular behavior of bacteria
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Antibiotics have been widely used to treat and prevent bacterial infections in humans, animals and plants. After their use in humans and animals, a significant portion of unmetabolized antibiotics pass through the body and are released through excreta (i.e., feces and urine). Many recent studies have investigated various routes of entry of these antibiotics into the environment. Antibiotics are widely detected in run-off water from farms with antibiotic-treated animals. City sewage water is also contaminated by human-derived and improperly disposed of antibiotics. Manure from drug-treated animals, as well as antibiotic-contaminated sludge and effluent from wastewater systems, further spreads antibiotics via agricultural farms and surface water. The primary scope of this Special Issue is to investigate the cause of increased antibiotics in various environments.

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens poses an eminent threat to human health, the economy and ecosystems. For example, increased antibiotics in the environment have been postulated to be responsible for the spread of antibiotic-resistance genes in bacterial populations and the rise of multidrug-resistant pathogenic bacteria. The second aim of this Special Issue is to address the consequences of increased antibiotics in the environment.

For this Special Issue of Antibiotics, titled “Antibiotics in the Environment: Causes and Consequences”, we invite current and innovative research related to the broad topic of antibiotics in the environment.

Dr. Hisako Masuda
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • antibiotics
  • multidrug resistant bacteria
  • environment
  • soil
  • aquatic
  • sistant genes

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 2882 KiB  
Article
Antimicrobial Resistance Linked to Septic System Contamination in the Indiana Lake Michigan Watershed
by Angad S. Sidhu, Faith N. Mikolajczyk and Jenny C. Fisher
Antibiotics 2023, 12(3), 569; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12030569 - 14 Mar 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1859
Abstract
Extended-spectrum β-lactamases confer resistance to a variety of β-lactam antimicrobials, and the genes for these enzymes are often found on plasmids that include additional antimicrobial resistance genes (ARG). We surveyed aquatic environments in the Indiana Lake Michigan watershed in proximity to areas with [...] Read more.
Extended-spectrum β-lactamases confer resistance to a variety of β-lactam antimicrobials, and the genes for these enzymes are often found on plasmids that include additional antimicrobial resistance genes (ARG). We surveyed aquatic environments in the Indiana Lake Michigan watershed in proximity to areas with high densities of residential septic systems to determine if human fecal contamination from septic effluent correlated with the presence of antimicrobial resistance genes and phenotypically resistant bacteria. Of the 269 E. coli isolated from environmental samples and one septic source, 97 isolates were resistant to cefotaxime, a third-generation cephalosporin. A subset of those isolates showed phenotypic resistance to other β-lactams, fluoroquinolones, sulfonamides, and tetracyclines. Quantitative PCR was used to quantify human-associated Bacteroides dorei gene copies (Human Bacteroides) from water samples and to identify the presence of ARG harbored on plasmids from E. coli isolates or in environmental DNA. We found a strong correlation between the presence of ARG and human fecal concentrations, which supports our hypothesis that septic effluent is a source of ARG and resistant organisms. The observed plasmid-based resistance adds an additional level of risk, as human-associated bacteria from septic systems may expand the environmental resistome by acting as a reservoir of transmissible resistance genes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antibiotics in the Environment: Causes and Consequences)
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