a b s t r a c tComposting is commonly used for the treatment and resource utilization of sewage sludge, and natural zeolite and nitrification inhibitors can be used for nitrogen conservation during sludge composting, while their impacts on ARGs control are still unclear. Therefore, three lab-scale composting reactors, A (the control), B (natural zeolite addition) and C (nitrification inhibitor addition of 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate, DMPP), were established. The impacts of natural zeolite and DMPP on the levels of ARGs were investigated, as were the roles that heavy metals, mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and the bacterial community play in ARGs evolution. The results showed that total ARGs copies were enriched 2.04 and 1.95 times in reactors A and C, respectively, but were reduced by 1.5% in reactor B due to the reduction of conjugation and co-selection of heavy metals caused by natural zeolite. Although some ARGs (bla CTX-M , bla TEM , ermB, ereA and tetW) were reduced by 0.3e2 logs, others (ermF, sulI, sulII, tetG, tetX, mefA and aac(6 0 )-Ib-cr) increased by 0.3e1.3 logs after sludge composting. Although the contributors for the ARGs profiles in different stages were quite different, the results of a partial redundancy analysis, Mantel test and Procrustes analysis showed that the bacterial community was the main contributor to the changes in ARGs compared to MGEs and heavy metals. Network analysis determined the potential host bacteria for various ARGs and further confirmed our results.

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h i g h l i g h t sARGs could be effectively removed through the thermophilic composting process. The main contributor of reducing ARGs abundance was pile temperature. Bacterial community was the main driver to reduction of ARGs abundance. Swine manure has been considered as the reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Composting is one of the most suitable technologies for treating livestock manures, and red mud was proved to have a positive effect on nitrogen conservation during composting. This study investigated the abundance of eight tetracycline and three copper resistance genes, the bacterial community during the full scale swine manure composting with or without addition of red mud. The results showed that ARGs in swine manure could be effectively removed through composting (reduced by 2.4 log copies/g TS), especially during the thermophilic phase (reduced by 1.5 log copies/g TS), which the main contributor might be temperature. Additionally, evolution of bacterial community could also have a great influence on ARGs. Although addition of red mud could enhance nitrogen conservation, it obviously hindered removal of ARGs (reduced by 1.7 log copies/g TS) and affected shaping of bacterial community during composting.

The seasonal variation and removal efficiency of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), including tetracycline resistance genes (tetG, tetM, and tetX) and macrolide (ermB, ermF, ereA, and mefA), were investigated in two typical swine wastewater treatment systems in both winter and summer. ARGs, class 1 integron gene, and 16S rRNA gene were quantified using real-time polymerase chain reaction assays. There was a 0.31-3.52 log variation in ARGs in raw swine wastewater, and the abundance of ARGs in winter was higher than in summer. tetM, tetX, ermB, ermF, and mefA were highly abundant. The abundance of ARGs was effectively reduced by most individual treatment process and the removal efficiencies of ARGs were higher in winter than in summer. However, when examining relative abundance, the fate of ARGs was quite variable. Anaerobic digestion reduced the relative abundance of tetX, ermB, ermF, and mefA, while lagoon treatment decreased tetM, ermB, ermF, and mefA. Sequencing batch reactor (SBR) decreased tetM, ermB, and ermF, but biofilters and wetlands did not display consistent removal efficiency on ARGs in two sampling seasons. As far as the entire treatment system is concerned, ermB and mefA were effectively reduced in both winter and summer in both total and relative abundance. The relative abundances of tetG and ereA were significantly correlated with intI1 (p < 0.01), and both tetG and ereA increased after wastewater treatment. This may pose a great threat to public health.

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