engleski

Characterization of pollution from antibiotic manufacturing: antibiotics and functional antibiotic resistance genes

Introduction Antibiotic manufacturing plants are recognized as the most important point sources for water pollution with antibiotic residues and antibiotic resistance determinants. Consequences to public health and ecosystems may be dramatic but difficult to anticipate due to a limited knowledge in this subject. Objective To characterize the extent of pollution by antibiotics and antibiotic resistance determinants through effluent discharges from two Croatian pharmaceutical industries involved in synthesis and formulation of antibiotics. Methods Chemical analysis of antibiotics was performed by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS). Total and antibiotic resistant bacteria were monitored by culturing. Functional metagenomics was used to identify resistance genes in industrial effluents as well as in sediments at discharge site and upstream of discharge. Results LC/MS analysis showed that effluents from azithromycin production contained high concentration of macrolides (mg/L) whereas effluents from formulation industry contained fluoroquinolones, sulfonamides and tetracyclines at concentrations from low μg/L to low mg/L. Culturing showed that both effluents contained a high frequency of antibiotic resistant bacteria (>80%). Functional metagenomics identified a wide variety of antibiotic resistance genes which shared on average low homology (<90% amino acid identity) with known gene products. The resistance genes were frequently found in clusters and associated with mobile genetic elements. Conclusion This study demonstrates that local pharmaceutical industries release substantial amounts of antibiotics and resistant bacteria to the receiving waters. Actions are therefore urgently needed to improve management of industrial discharges and to reduce risks at such locations. The genomic resource presented here extends the roster of functional antibiotic resistance genes that are dispersed from industrial production.

Antibiotic pollution ; Functional metagenomics ; Antibiotic resistance

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