Antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) enter the environment through municipal and agricultural waste streams and pose a potential risk to human and livestock health through either direct exposure to antibiotic-resistant pathogens or selective pressure on the soil microbial community. This review summarizes current literature on the fate of antibiotics, ARB, and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) during anaerobic digestion and composting of manure and wastewater residuals. Studies have shown that removal of antibiotics varies widely during mesophilic anaerobic digestion, even within the same class of antibiotics. Research on ARB shows a wide range of removal under mesophilic conditions, with nearly complete removal under thermophilic conditions. Research on 16 antibiotics in 11 different studies using both bench-scale and farm-scale composting systems demonstrates that composting significantly reduces levels of extractable antibiotics in livestock manure in nearly all cases. Calculated half-lives ranged from 0.9 to 16 d for most antibiotics. There is more limited evidence that levels of ARB are also reduced by composting. Studies of the fate of ARGs show mixed evidence for removal during both mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion and during thermophilic composting. Antibiotic resistance genes are DNA structures, so they may persist until the DNA structure is degraded, yet the bacterium may have been rendered nonviable long before the DNA is completely degraded. Additional research would be of value to determine optimum anaerobic digestion and composting conditions for removal of ARB and to increase understanding of the fate of ARGs during anaerobic digestion and composting.
bBiosolids and livestock manure are valuable high-carbon soil amendments, but they commonly contain antibiotic residues that might persist after land application. While composting reduces the concentration of extractable antibiotics in these materials, if the starting concentration is sufficiently high then remaining residues could impact microbial communities in the compost and soil to which these materials are applied. To examine this issue, ciprofloxacin was added to biosolid compost feedstock to achieve a total concentration of 19 ppm, approximately 5-fold higher than that normally detected by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) (1 to 3.5 ppm). This feedstock was placed into mesh bags that were buried in aerated compost bays. Once a week, a set of bags was removed and analyzed (treated and untreated, three replicates of each; 4 weeks). Addition of ciprofloxacin had no effect on the recovery of resistant bacteria at any time point (P ؍ 0.86), and a separate bioassay showed that aqueous extractions from materials with an estimated 59 ppm ciprofloxacin had no effect on the growth of a susceptible strain of Escherichia coli (P ؍ 0.28). Regression analysis showed that growth of the susceptible strain of E. coli can be reduced given a sufficiently high concentration of ciprofloxacin (P < 0.007), a result that is consistent with adsorption being the primary mechanism of sequestration. While analytical methods detected biologically significant concentrations of ciprofloxacin in the materials tested here, the culture-based methods were consistent with the materials having sufficient adsorptive capacity to prevent typical concentrations of ciprofloxacin residues from selectively enriching populations of resistant bacteria.
A collaborative effort between researchers at Washington State University and a small US town is used to highlight the challenges of community involvement in waste management decision-making. The role of the US land-grant co-operative extension system in achieving effective community engagement around waste management and other challenging issues is also explored. Four concepts for resilient decision-making are used as a framework for examining the merits of this project. The case study includes information gathered through in-depth data collection and analysis over 32 months by engaging in participant observation and conducting a mail survey of 374 households.JEL classification: Z130, Z19
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