Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria in the Environment as Bio-Indicators of Pollution

Abstract

Antibiotic resistant and multiple-antibiotic resistant bacteria (MARB) have become increasingly widespread, primarily due to overuse of antibiotics in clinical therapeutics and in growth promotion for livestock. This undermines the usefulness of the drugs and presents a serious problem for human health. Compounding the problem, resistance determinants can spread between different bacteria via transfer of genetic material, so that the digestive tracts of farm animals, for example, have become breeding grounds for MARB. Antibiotics and resistant bacteria enter the environment in both treated and untreated sewage, via wastewater streams from hospitals and pharmaceutical plants, and through agricultural runoff from feedlots and fields fertilized with manure. This has led to contamination of groundwater, lakes, rivers and coastal sea water, and high levels of MARB in wildlife which indicates pollution of these habitats. Here we propose that the level of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in wildlife, for example sea turtles and fish, could be used as a bioindicator to monitor pollution and to evaluate the success of efforts to curtail it.

Testudines as Sentinels for Monitoring the Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance in Marine Environments: An Integrative Review

“…Sea turtles are considered a good sentinel species for monitoring the health of marine ecosystems; they have been used in many toxicological and trophic ecology studies [9,10]. This value as sentinels is due to their long lifespan and tendency to bioaccumulate pathogens and contaminants including antibiotics [11][12][13]. Furthermore, antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) have been previously described as a bioindicator of anthropogenic pollution within marine environments [11,13,14].…”

“…This value as sentinels is due to their long lifespan and tendency to bioaccumulate pathogens and contaminants including antibiotics [11][12][13]. Furthermore, antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) have been previously described as a bioindicator of anthropogenic pollution within marine environments [11,13,14]. However, no study has provided a critical integrative evaluation of the role played by sea turtles in monitoring the prevalence, or dissemination of AR in marine environments globally.…”

Distribution and prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in fish farms in East Malaysia

“…Since the first antibiotic discovery by Alexander Fleming in 1928, many different classes of antibiotics have been developed and concurrently bacteria have slowly developed resistance towards those antimicrobial agents (Paulson et al, 2016). Now, the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance is a global problem in every sector including aquaculture and agriculture (Radhouani et al, 2014;Done et al, 2015).…”

“…The existing aquaculture industry is, however, associated with an increasing number of large farms, high density of fish and poor sanitary conditions which could only lead to greater levels of resistance in the human commensal microbiota (Schmidt et al, 2000;Barton and Fløysand, 2010;Deng et al, 2016). This has become a global problem because the misuse of antibiotics in aquaculture has been identified to drives the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and led to an unwelcoming implication to the public health (Schmidt et al, 2000;Heuer et al, 2009;Deng et al, 2016;Patil et al, 2016;Paulson et al, 2016).…”

Influence of environmental disturbances on the bacteriological quality of Pagbanganan river in Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines

“…Microorganisms like bacteria have been constantly used as indicators of riverine water quality (Doherty et al 2017, Paulson et al 2016, Balmonte et al 2016. This is due to the presence of different bacterial species like which is a human source tracking marker (Verhougstraete et al 2015) and as a fecal indicator bacteria (Causse et al 2015).…”