Bing Xie
East China Normal University, China
Title: Fate and effect of antibiotics from anthropogenic wastes and resistance risk assessment
Biography
Biography: Bing Xie
Abstract
The anthropogenic sources wastes, including domestic sewage and husbandry wastewater, to and sludge to garbage and municipal solid waste are regarded as main contributors to the elevated level of antibiotics in the environment. This paper introduces recent studies on the occurrence and dynamic models of antibiotics in anthropogenic wastes, their effects on wastes bio-processing and the corresponding risk assessment methodology. Our results show that removal of antibiotics is more dependent on their sorption potential than on their biodegradability within a treatment system. Furthermore, the presence of antibiotics at trace levels is reportedly inhibitory to bio-treatment systems particularly to nitrification. However, after prolonged acclimatization microorganisms may come to the fore that can subsist on antibiotics, while these inhibitory effects can also be alleviated as a consequence of the evolution of antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) and/or succession of a microbial community that is gradually dominated by antibiotic insensitive microorganisms. The spread of ARGs and their recruitment by clinically important bacteria have not been studied in enough detail to allow assessment of the related risks. Defining risk determinants and proposing validated risk quantification models are imperative as necessary steps towards a comprehensive risk assessment framework for the presence of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in anthropogenic wastes.