AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
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Evaluation of Multiple-antibiotic Resistant Gram-negative Pathogenic Bacteria in the Bioaerosols of a Pharmaceutical Wastewater Treatment Plant in Northern China
ZHANG MENGYU, Zuo Jiane, Tsinghua University
Abstract Number: 44 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract An investigation on multiple antibiotic resistant level of the Gram-negative human opportunistic pathogenic bacteria in bioaerosols at a pharmaceutical WWTP (wastewater treatment plant, WWTP) mainly treating cephalosporin producing wastewater, a municipal WWTP and a residential community in northern China was performed in this study. Air samples in the around the pharmaceutical WWTP were collected over several months. At the same time, bioaerosol samples obtained from a municipal WWTP and a residential community were used as control. The species of isolated Gram-negative bacteria strains were identified, and if they were opportunistic pathogens, antibiotic susceptibility tests against 18 commonly used antibiotics including 11 βeta-lactam antibiotics and 7 other types of antibiotics were conducted. The results indicated the dominant genus of isolated opportunistic pathogenic bacteria from all bioaerosol samples were Acinetobacter, Alcaligenes, Brevundimonas, Citrobacter, Enterobacter, Escherichia, Klebsiella, Pantoea, Pseudomonas and Sphingomonas. The results of antibiotic susceptibility tests at sampled sites were serious. Over 50% of isolated strains were resistant to several antibiotics such as ampicillin, nitrofurantoin and so on. Moreover, the proportion of βeta-lactam antibiotics resistant strains in the bacteria isolated from the bioaerosols above or around the aeration tanks in the cephalosporin producing wastewater treatment plants were generally higher than those in the residential community and the municipal WWTP, which indicated aeration had significant impact on the frequency of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the air near WWTPs. Moreover, according to the multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index, air environment in and around the cephalosporin producing WWTP was to be a high-risk antibiotic-exposed site, which might cause potential hazard for the health of the staff and residents in neighborhood.