Environmental and Public Health Implications of Water Reuse: Antibiotics, Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes

Pei-Ying Hong; Nada Al-Jassim; Mohd Ikram Ansari; Roderick I Mackie

doi:10.3390/antibiotics2030367

Environmental and Public Health Implications of Water Reuse: Antibiotics, Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes

Antibiotics (Basel). 2013 Jul 31;2(3):367-99. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics2030367.

Authors

Pei-Ying Hong¹, Nada Al-Jassim², Mohd Ikram Ansari³, Roderick I Mackie^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Environmental Science and Engineering, Water Desalination and Reuse Center, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. peiying.hong@kaust.edu.sa.
² King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Environmental Science and Engineering, Water Desalination and Reuse Center, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. nada.aljassim@kaust.edu.sa.
³ King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Environmental Science and Engineering, Water Desalination and Reuse Center, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. mohd.ansari@kaust.edu.sa.
⁴ Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. r-mackie@illinois.edu.
⁵ Institute of Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. r-mackie@illinois.edu.

Abstract

Water scarcity is a global problem, and is particularly acute in certain regions like Africa, the Middle East, as well as the western states of America. A breakdown on water usage revealed that 70% of freshwater supplies are used for agricultural irrigation. The use of reclaimed water as an alternative water source for agricultural irrigation would greatly alleviate the demand on freshwater sources. This paradigm shift is gaining momentum in several water scarce countries like Saudi Arabia. However, microbial problems associated with reclaimed water may hinder the use of reclaimed water for agricultural irrigation. Of particular concern is that the occurrence of antibiotic residues in the reclaimed water can select for antibiotic resistance genes among the microbial community. Antibiotic resistance genes can be associated with mobile genetic elements, which in turn allow a promiscuous transfer of resistance traits from one bacterium to another. Together with the pathogens that are present in the reclaimed water, antibiotic resistant bacteria can potentially exchange mobile genetic elements to create the "perfect microbial storm". Given the significance of this issue, a deeper understanding of the occurrence of antibiotics in reclaimed water, and their potential influence on the selection of resistant microorganisms would be essential. In this review paper, we collated literature over the past two decades to determine the occurrence of antibiotics in municipal wastewater and livestock manure. We then discuss how these antibiotic resistant bacteria may impose a potential microbial risk to the environment and public health, and the knowledge gaps that would have to be addressed in future studies. Overall, the collation of the literature in wastewater treatment and agriculture serves to frame and identify potential concerns with respect to antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria, and antibiotic resistance genes in reclaimed water.

Keywords: antibiotic resistant bacteria; antibiotics; livestock manure; manure-applied soil; municipal wastewater; water reuse.

Publication types

Review