Salmonella in Wastewater: Identification, Antibiotic Resistance and the Impact on the Marine Environment

Abstract

Many coastal cities around the world discharge their wastewaters into the marine environment. These wastewaters contain a high variety of pathogenic microorganisms that would have a role in the contamination of this ecosystem and may have potential risks for public health and environment. Using an environmental approach, we investigate the presence of Salmonella in wastewater treatment plants and its presence after the treatment in its receiving marine environment. In this environmental approach, we provide information about the inefficiency of wastewater treatment to remove Salmonella, especially that wastewater is considered as a good tank of high diversity of Salmonella serotypes. The identified Salmonella serotypes in the receiving marine environment almost coincide with those identified in wastewater. This characterization of Salmonella strains from wastewater and marine environment involves the direct impact of municipal wastewater discharges on this environment. Antibiotic susceptibility tests reveal generally the presence of multiresistant Salmonella strains in wastewater, which usually end up in the marine environment and may have a significant risk on the public health.

Preliminary Microbiological Coastal Water Quality Determination along the Department of Atlántico (Colombia): Relationships with Beach Characteristics

“…Regarding the E. coli values recorded in this paper, they can be related to the population increment from 2015 to 2019, especially in coastal municipalities located in the northern part, and the associated increase of discharged wastewaters directly into the beach that is also manifested by the detection of Salmonella spp. in different beaches, which is confirmed by the association between this pathogen and the presence of polluted streams [50,51]. The lack of appropriate systems for wastewater treatment observed in the central and southern parts of the coast, e.g., at Tubará, Piojó and Juan de Acosta and the discharge directly into the sea of wastewaters coming from treatment plants (e.g., Puerto Colombia) could be the main sources of those microorganisms in the Department of Atlántico [62,63].…”

“…The average E. coli and Enterococcus counts reported by Sanchez et al [12] were 4.1 × 10 5 cfu/100 mL and 4.3 × 10 2 cfu/100 mL, respectively, which demonstrated the elevated pollution of those streams with faecal matter that could also contain Salmonella spp. In addition, wastewater treatment plants are mostly designed to effectively eliminate faecal bacteria but are not able to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms [51]; therefore, wastewaters that are deposited directly on the beach can be a source of Salmonella, as was detected in this study.…”

Physico-chemical and microbiological quality of M’Zar wastewater treatment plant effluents and their impact on the green irrigation of the Golf course

“…R < 0.7 mainly or entirely of animal origin, R between 0.7 and 1 mixed predominantly animal, R between 1 and 2 uncertain origin, R between 2 and 4 mixed predominantly human, R > 4 source exclusively human These results are in agreement with the Moroccan water standards for irrigation and are consistent with the previous reports (El Addouli et al 2009). However, a report published earlier showed the presence different strains of salmonella even after the installation of the tertiary UV treatment (El Boulani et al 2016). This can be explained by the difference in the sampling period.…”

“…In fact, treated wastewater is often an interesting source of water containing the nutrients necessary for the proper fertilization of agricultural land and plant growth and which is always available (Jiménez-Cisneros 1995). The use of this resource in agriculture is a form of water and nutrient recycling, but can also cause serious environmental problems due to their high levels of toxic chemicals and pathogens (El Addouli et al 2009) that have become resistant to antibiotics (Meloul and Hassani 1999;El Boulani et al 2016); as a result, the use of these water in crop irrigation threatens the health of farmers and consumers products (Howard et al 2003;Oren et al 2004;Taylor et al 2004).…”

Detection of Enteric Viruses and Bacterial Indicators in a Sewage Treatment Center and Shallow Water Bay

“…However, due to large quantity of bacteria in raw sewage, nonresponsive operations, or inadequate plant maintenance, pathogens can still be detected after final treatment [47]. This serious public health risk can be worsened by the ability of Salmonella to survive in the environment for long times, particularly in high salty conditions, and its ability to mutate and develop antibiotic resistance [48,49]. Salmonella isolated from effluent had been shown to have higher antibiotic resistance rates compared with those of influent [48].…”