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Prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes of wastewater and surface water in livestock farms of Jiangsu Province, China

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Abstract

The overuse of antibiotics in livestock farms is general, leading to a wide distribution of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in aquatic environment adjacent to livestock farms. However, researches of the distribution and types of ARGs in aquatic environment of China are still in the initial stage. In this study, wastewater and surface water samples were collected from 12 livestock farms (four pig farms, four cattle farms, and four chicken farms) in Jiangsu Province of China. The prevalence, abundance, and distribution of 22 ARGs were investigated, which were categorized into six groups, including nine tetracyclin resistance genes, three sulfonamides resistance genes, three quinolone resistance genes, two macrolide resistance genes, three aminoglycoside resistance genes, and two multidrug resistance genes, employing quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). The results suggested that all of the 22 ARGs were detected in samples. Sul1, sul2, and tetM were the most abundant with the average concentration of 3.84 × 101 copies/16S recombinant RNA (rRNA) gene copies, 1.62 × 101 copies/16S rRNA gene copies, 2.33 × 101 copies/16S rRNA gene copies, respectively. Principle component analysis revealed that the comprehensive pollution of ARGs in northern Jiangsu was more serious. ARGs in wastewater were more abundant when compared to that in surface water. A preliminary study regarding the fate of ARGs after an aerobiotic process showed that tetA, tetC, sul1, sul2, oqxB, and qnrS were significantly increased. And, among the tetracycline resistance genes, the efflux pump genes were enriched while the ribosomal protection protein encoding genes were decreased in the aerobiotic process. The prevalance of ARGs in water environment is of concern; more surveillance is required to determine the pollution level and pattern of antibiotic resistance genes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from 2011 Commonwealth and Environmental Protection Project granted by the MEP “The health risk assessment and management technology of veterinary medicine” (201109038) and “Study of determination method, pollution level, and pollution control strategy of antibiotic-resistant gene in China” (201309031).

I certify that this manuscript is original and has not been published and will not be submitted elsewhere for publication while being considered. And the study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time. No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support your conclusions. No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were our own.The submission has been received explicitly from all co-authors. And authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participant included in the study.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, 24 Tong-jia-xiang, Nanjing, 210009, People’s Republic of China

      Biao Chen & Boping Ye

    2. Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, MEP, 8 Jiang-wang-miao Street, Nanjing, 210042, People’s Republic of China

      Xinyan Guo & Na Wang

    3. College of Science, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, 210009, People’s Republic of China

      Lijun Hao

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    1. Biao Chen
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    Correspondence to Na Wang or Boping Ye.

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    Responsible editor: Robert Duran

    Biao Chen, Lijun Hao, Na Wang and Boping Ye contributed equally to this work.

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    Chen, B., Hao, L., Guo, X. et al. Prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes of wastewater and surface water in livestock farms of Jiangsu Province, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 13950–13959 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4636-y

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