article · PLoS ONE
Biological contaminants such as antibiotic resistance genes and faecal indicator bacteria remain understudied in tropical environments within developing regions. An investigation of river sediments in Tiruchirappalli, India, examined total bacterial load, specific bacterial markers, and several antibiotic resistance genes. Samples taken from hospital outlet pipes exhibited substantially higher levels of bacterial markers, including Escherichia coli, Enterococcus species, and Pseudomonas species, than samples taken from the broader river basin. Antibiotic resistance genes including aadA and blaTEM were widely detected across sampling sites, while genes such as blaSHV and blaNDM were identified in sediments contaminated by urban and hospital runoff. Strong correlations between resistance genes and bacterial counts suggest shared contamination origins, highlighting how tropical rivers receiving untreated or partially treated effluents can serve as reservoirs for resistance elements that could transfer to pathogens.
Discharging untreated hospital and municipal wastewater into natural waterways introduces hazardous bacteria and drug resistance elements into local ecosystems. When river sediments accumulate these resistance genes, nearby communities face increased risks of exposure to difficult-to-treat infections. Understanding how these contaminants disperse helps environmental and public health authorities pinpoint critical pollution sources and protect freshwater resources.
The abstract does not indicate an application pathway, as it focuses strictly on observational environmental monitoring rather than technology development or intervention testing.
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The occurrence of emerging biological contaminants including antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and Faecal Indicator Bacteria (FIB) is still little investigated in developing countries under tropical conditions. In this study, the total bacterial load, the abundance of FIB (E. coli and Enterococcus spp. (ENT)), Pseudomonas spp. and ARGs (blaTEM, blaCTX-M, blaSHV, blaNDM and aadA) were quantified using quantitative PCR in the total DNA extracted from the sediments recovered from hospital outlet pipes (HOP) and the Cauvery River Basin (CRB), Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. The abundance of bacterial marker genes were 120, 104 and 89 fold higher for the E. coli, Enterococcus spp. and Pseudomonas spp., respectively at HOP when compared with CRB. The ARGs aadA and blaTEM were most frequently detected in higher concentration than other ARGs at all the sampling sites. The ARGs blaSHV and blaNDM were identified in CRB sediments contaminated by hospital and urban wastewaters. The ARGs abundance strongly correlated (r ≥ 0.36, p < 0.05, n = 45) with total bacterial load and E. coli in the sediments, indicating a common origin and extant source of contamination. Tropical aquatic ecosystems receiving wastewaters can act as reservoir of ARGs, which could potentially be transferred to susceptible bacterial pathogens at these sites.
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DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149211
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