Tracking Change: A Look at the Ecological Footprint of Antibiotics and Antimicrobial Resistance

Abstract

Among the class of pollutants considered as ‘emerging contaminants’, antibiotic compounds including drugs used in medical therapy, biocides and disinfectants merit special consideration because their bioactivity in the environment is the result of their functional design. Antibiotics can alter the structure and function of microbial communities in the receiving environment and facilitate the development and spread of resistance in critical species of bacteria including pathogens. Methanogenesis, nitrogen transformation and sulphate reduction are among the key ecosystem processes performed by bacteria in nature that can also be affected by the impacts of environmental contamination by antibiotics. Together, the effects of the development of resistance in bacteria involved in maintaining overall ecosystem health and the development of resistance in human, animal and fish pathogens, make serious contributions to the risks associated with environmental pollution by antibiotics. In this brief review, we discuss the multiple impacts on human and ecosystem health of environmental contamination by antibiotic compounds.

Antibiotic use in poultry: a survey of eight farms in Thailand

“…The so-called antibiotic footprint has been proposed as a global tool to communicate the total magnitude of antibiotic use in humans and livestock affecting the ecological system 1 . In low- and middle-income countries, antibiotic use is increasing as household incomes rise and antimicrobial drugs become more affordable.…”

Integrons: Past, Present, and Future

“…The use of antibiotics in aquaculture adds these compounds directly into water bodies (223,224), raising local antibiotic concentrations. The environmental and health consequences of contaminating water bodies with antibiotics are of significant concern (225)(226)(227), with calls to monitor and control antibiotic pollution (121,228).…”

Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria from Treated and Untreated Hospital Wastewater at Ayder Referral Hospital, Mekelle, North Ethiopia

“…Accordingly, hospital wastewater could increase the numbers of resistant bacteria in the recipient sewers by both mechanisms of introduction and selection pressure [5]. The release of resistant bacteria to the receiving environment can pose public health impact through, carrying transmissible gene, by acting as a vector or reservoir of resistant gene [6] [7]. The most common bacterial pathogens found in hospital wastewater are Salmonella, Shigella, S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, Vibrio, Clostridium, Yersinia, Campylobacter, Leptospira and groups of total coliforms consisting of Serratia, Enterobacter, Klebsiella, and Escherichia coli (E. coli) [8] [9].…”