Effects of Clinical Wastewater on the Bacterial Community Structure from Sewage to the Environment

Abstract

This study pertains to measure differences in bacterial communities along the wastewater pathway, from sewage sources through the environment. Our main focus was on taxa which include pathogenic genera, and genera harboring antibiotic resistance (henceforth referred to as “target taxa”). Our objective was to measure the relative abundance of these taxa in clinical wastewaters compared to non-clinical wastewaters, and to investigate what changes can be detected along the wastewater pathway. The study entailed a monthly sampling campaign along a wastewater pathway, and taxa identification through 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Results indicated that clinical and non-clinical wastewaters differed in their overall bacterial composition, but that target taxa were not enriched in clinical wastewater. This suggests that treatment of clinical wastewater before release into the wastewater system would only remove a minor part of the potential total pathogen load in wastewater treatment plants. Additional findings were that the relative abundance of most target taxa was decreased after wastewater treatment, yet all investigated taxa were detected in 68% of the treated effluent samples—meaning that these bacteria are continuously released into the receiving surface water. Temporal variation was only observed for specific taxa in surface water, but not in wastewater samples.

Defining minimal selective concentrations of amoxicillin, doxycycline and enrofloxacin in broiler-derived cecal fermentations by phenotype, microbiome and resistome

“…Especially the difference for the MSC of tetracycline and doxycycline could be explained by the difference in composition of the wastewater which is a collection of faeces of non-clinical and clinical sources. This could indicate that the pool of resistance genes presence is larger at the start and therefore lower concentrations might already favourably affect the selection for resistant bacteria (58, 59).…”

Taxonomic and Functional Distribution of Bacterial Communities in Domestic and Hospital Wastewater System: Implications for Public and Environmental Health

“…In addition, the different profiles of antibiotics used in hospitals compared to home settings ( Figure 1 ) could have influenced the different bacterial profiles found in HWW compared to DWW ( Figure 4 ). In previous studies, this has been attributed to the more frequent use of glycopeptides and carbapenems in hospitals than in home settings [ 46 , 47 ]. Besides the increased antibiotic resistance among bacterial populations found in HWW as compared to DWW, bacterial species diversity was lower in HWW compared to DWW ( Figure 4 ), possibly due to antibiotic action on the susceptible populations.…”

Urbanization of a subtropical island (Okinawa, Japan) alters physicochemical characteristics and disrupts microbial community dynamics in nearshore ecosystems

“…6). Bacteria in many of these orders are known to be associated with anthropogenic sources, some are considered fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), and some are potentially pathogenic to humans and marine life (Verburg et al 2021). In contrast, Verrucomicrobiales was the only order detected in multiple rural samples but absent in urban samples.…”

“…The orders Cloacimonadales, Lactobacillales, and Thiomocrospirales contain bacteria that are often associated with wastewater treatment plants, sewage sludge, and wastewater effluent (Meyer et al 2016;Shakeri Yekta et al 2019;Verburg et al 2021). Bacteria in the order Cloacimonadales are members of sewage sludge bacterial communities and are associated with lipid and oil degradation (Shakeri Yekta et al 2019).…”

“…Bacteria in the order Cloacimonadales are members of sewage sludge bacterial communities and are associated with lipid and oil degradation (Shakeri Yekta et al 2019). Bacteria in the order Lactobacillales are common components of human and animal microbiomes that, despite being non-spore-forming, often survive wastewater treatment and are released into surface water (Verburg et al 2021).…”