11 research outputs found

    A global multinational survey of cefotaxime-resistant coliforms in urban wastewater treatment plants

    Get PDF
    The World Health Organization Global Action Plan recommends integrated surveillance programs as crucial strategies for monitoring antibiotic resistance. Although several national surveillance programs are in place for clinical and veterinary settings, no such schemes exist for monitoring antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment. In this transnational study, we developed, validated, and tested a low-cost surveillance and easy to implement approach to evaluate antibiotic resistance in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) by targeting cefotaxime-resistant (CTX-R) coliforms as indicators. The rationale for this approach was: i) coliform quantification methods are internationally accepted as indicators of fecal contamination in recreational waters and are therefore routinely applied in analytical labs; ii) CTX-R coliforms are clinically relevant, associated with extended-spectrum ?-lactamases (ESBLs), and are rare in pristine environments. We analyzed 57 WWTPs in 22 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and North America. CTX-R coliforms were ubiquitous in raw sewage and their relative abundance varied significantly (< 0.1% to 38.3%), being positively correlated (p < 0.001) with regional atmospheric temperatures. Although most WWTPs removed large proportions of CTX-R coliforms, loads over 103 colony-forming units per mL were occasionally observed in final effluents. We demonstrate that CTX-R coliform monitoring is a feasible and affordable approach to assess wastewater antibiotic resistance status

    Genomic and physiological analyses of an indigenous strain, Enterococcus faecium 17OM39

    No full text
    The human gut microbiome plays a crucial role in human health and efforts need to be done for cultivation and characterisation of bacteria with potential health benefits. Here, we isolated a bacterium from a healthy Indian adult faeces and investigated its potential as probiotic. The cultured bacterial strain 17OM39 was identified as Enterococcus faecium by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The strain 17OM39 exhibited tolerance to acidic pH, showed antimicrobial activity and displayed strong cell surface traits such as hydrophobicity and autoaggregation capacity. The strain was able to tolerate bile salts and showed bile salt hydrolytic (BSH) activity, exopolysaccharide production and adherence to human HT-29 cell line. Importantly, partial haemolytic activity was detected and the strain was susceptible to the human serum. Genomics investigation of strain 17OM39 revealed the presence of diverse genes encoding for proteolytic enzymes, stress response systems and the ability to produce essential amino acids, vitamins and antimicrobial compound Bacteriocin-A. No virulence factors and plasmids were found in this genome of the strain 17OM39. Collectively, these physiological and genomic features of 17OM39 confirm the potential of this strain as a candidate probiotic

    A global multinational survey of cefotaxime-resistant coliforms in urban wastewater treatment plants

    No full text
    The World Health Organization Global Action Plan recommends integrated surveillance programs as crucial strategies for monitoring antibiotic resistance. Although several national surveillance programs are in place for clinical and veterinary settings, no such schemes exist for monitoring antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment. In this transnational study, we developed, validated, and tested a low-cost surveillance and easy to implement approach to evaluate antibiotic resistance in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) by targeting cefotaxime-resistant (CTX-R) coliforms as indicators. The rationale for this approach was: i) coliform quantification methods are internationally accepted as indicators of fecal contamination in recreational waters and are therefore routinely applied in analytical labs; ii) CTX-R coliforms are clinically relevant, associated with extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs), and are rare in pristine environments. We analyzed 57 WWTPs in 22 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and North America. CTX-R coliforms were ubiquitous in raw sewage and their relative abundance varied significantly
    corecore