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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing threat to human and animal health. However, in aquatic animals—the fastest growing food animal sector globally—AMR trends are seldom documented, particularly in Asia, which contributes two-thirds of global food fish production. Here, we present a systematic review and meta-analysis of 749 point prevalence surveys reporting antibiotic-resistant bacteria from aquatic food animals in Asia, extracted from 343 articles published in 2000–2019. We find concerning levels of resistance to medically important antimicrobials in foodborne pathogens. In aquaculture, the percentage of antimicrobial compounds per survey with resistance exceeding 50% (P50) plateaued at 33% [95% confidence interval (CI) 28 to 37%] between 2000 and 2018. In fisheries, P50 decreased from 52% [95% CI 39 to 65%] to 22% [95% CI 14 to 30%]. We map AMR at 10-kilometer resolution, finding resistance hotspots along Asia’s major river systems and coastal waters of China and India. Regions benefitting most from future surveillance efforts are eastern China and India. Scaling up surveillance to strengthen epidemiological evidence on AMR and inform aquaculture and fisheries interventions is needed to mitigate the impact of AMR globally., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The rapid development of megacities, and their growing connectedness across the world is becoming a distinct driver for emerging disease outbreaks. Early detection of unusual disease emergence and spread should therefore include such cities as part of risk-based surveillance. A catch-all metagenomic sequencing approach of urban sewage could potentially provide an unbiased insight into the dynamics of viral pathogens circulating in a community irrespective of access to care, a potential which already has been proven for the surveillance of poliovirus. Here, we present a detailed characterization of sewage viromes from a snapshot of 81 high density urban areas across the globe, including in-depth assessment of potential biases, as a proof of concept for catch-all viral pathogen surveillance. We show the ability to detect a wide range of viruses and geographical and seasonal differences for specific viral groups. Our findings offer a cross-sectional baseline for further research in viral surveillance from urban sewage samples and place previous studies in a global perspective.

The rapid development of megacities, and their growing connectedness across the world is becoming a distinct driver for emerging disease outbreaks. Early detection of unusual disease emergence and spread should therefore include such cities as part of risk-based surveillance. A catch-all metagenomic sequencing approach of urban sewage could potentially provide an unbiased insight into the dynamics of viral pathogens circulating in a community irrespective of access to care, a potential which already has been proven for the surveillance of poliovirus. Here, we present a detailed characterization of sewage viromes from a snapshot of 81 high density urban areas across the globe, including in-depth assessment of potential biases, as a proof of concept for catch-all viral pathogen surveillance. We show the ability to detect a wide range of viruses and geographical and seasonal differences for specific viral groups. Our findings offer a cross-sectional baseline for further research in viral surveillance from urban sewage samples and place previous studies in a global perspective.

Biological treatment of waste water from bulk drug production, contaminated with high levels of fluoroquinolone antibiotics, can lead to massive enrichment of antibiotic resistant bacteria, resistance genes and associated mobile elements, as previously shown. Such strong selection may be boosted by the use of activated sludge (AS) technology, where microbes that are able to thrive on the chemicals within the wastewater are reintroduced at an earlier stage of the process to further enhance degradation of incoming chemicals. The microbial community structure within such a treatment plant is, however, largely unclear. In this study, Illumina-based 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing was applied to investigate the bacterial communities of different stages from an Indian treatment plant operated by Patancheru Environment Technology Limited (PETL) in Hyderabad, India. The plant receives waste water with high levels of fluoroquinolones and applies AS technology. A total of 1,019,400 sequences from samples of different stages of the treatment process were analyzed. In total 202, 303, 732, 652, 947 and 864 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained at 3% distance cutoff in the equilibrator, aeration tanks 1 and 2, settling tank, secondary sludge and old sludge samples from PETL, respectively. Proteobacteria was the most dominant phyla in all samples with Gammaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria being the dominant classes. Alcaligenaceae and Pseudomonadaceae, bacterial families from PETL previously reported to be highly multidrug resistant, were the dominant families in aeration tank samples. Despite regular addition of human sewage (approximately 20%) to uphold microbial activity, the bacterial diversity within aeration tanks from PETL was considerably lower than corresponding samples from seven, regular municipal waste water treatment plants. The strong selection pressure from antibiotics present may be one important factor in structuring the microbial community in PETL, w

The Water Framework Directive (WFD), 2000/60/EC, requires an integrated approach to the monitoring and assessment of the quality of surface water bodies. The chemical status assessment is based on compliance with legally binding Environmental Quality Standards (EQSs) for selected chemical pollutants (priority substances) of EU-wide concern. In the context of the mandate for the period 2010 to 2012 of the subgroup Chemical Monitoring and Emerging Pollutants (CMEP) under the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) for the WFD, a specific task was established for the elaboration of a technical report on aquatic effect-based monitoring tools. The activity was chaired by Sweden and co-chaired by Italy and progressively involved several Member States and stakeholders in an EU-wide drafting group. The main aim of this technical report was to identify potential effect-based tools (e.g. biomarkers and bioassays) that could be used in the context of the different monitoring programmes (surveillance, operational and investigative) linking chemical and ecological status assessment. The present paper summarizes the major technical contents and findings of the report.

Treated sewage effluents contain complex mixtures of micropollutants, raising concerns about effects on aquatic organisms. The addition of advanced treatment steps has therefore been suggested. However, some of these could potentially produce effluents affecting exposed organisms by unknown modes of action. Here, 1H NMR (proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) metabolomics of fish blood plasma was used to explore potential responses not identified by more targeted (chemical or biological) assays. Rainbow trout was exposed in parallel to six differently treated effluents (e.g., conventional activated sludge, addition of sand filter, further addition of ozonation and/or a moving bed biofilm reactor or a separate membrane bioreactor line). Multivariate data analysis showed changes in the metabolome (HDL, LDL, VLDL and glycerol-containing lipids, cholesterol, glucose, phosphatidylcholine, glutamine, and alanine) between treatment groups. This formed the basis for postulating a hypothesis on how exposure to effluent treated by certain processes, including ozonation, would affect the metabolic profiles of exposed fish. The hypothesis withstood testing in an independent study the following year. To conclude, 1H NMR metabolomics proved suitable for identifying physiological responses not identified by more targeted assays used in parallel studies. Whether these changes are linked to adverse effects remains to be tested., QC 20120217

Treated sewage effluents often contain a mixture of estrogenic compounds in low concentrations. The total combined activity of these, however, may be sufficiently high to affect the reproduction of aquatic vertebrates. The introduction of advanced treatment technologies has been suggested as a way to remove micro-contaminants, including estrogenic substances. In this study, one municipal influent was treated with six different processes in parallel on a semi-large scale in order to assess their potential to reduce substances that could contribute to estrogenic effects in male fish. The effluent from a conventional, activated sludge treatment line was compared to a similarly treated effluent with a final sand-filtering step. The addition of ozonation (15 g O3/m3), a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) or both in combination was also evaluated. There was also a separate treatment line that was based on a membrane bioreactor. A small battery of hepatic estrogen-responsive genes was measured in the exposed fish using quantitative PCR. Concentrations of steroid estrogens and estrogenic phenols in the effluents were measured by GC-ECNI-MS. The ozonated effluents were the only tested effluents for which all measured biological effects in exposed fish were removed. Chemical data suggested that the MBBR technology was equally effective in removing the analyzed estrogens; however, elevated expression of estrogen-responsive genes suggested that some estrogenic substances were still present in the effluent. The membrane bioreactor removed most of the measured estrogens and it reduced the induction of the estrogen-responsive genes. However, fish exposed to this effluent had significantly enlarged livers. Given that the same influent was treated in parallel with a broad set of technologies and that the chemical analyses were combined with an in vivo assessment of estrogenic responses, this study provides valuable input into the assessment of advanced treatment processes for removin, QC 20120217

Part of urn:nbn:se:su:diva-494

Environmental oestrogens are natural or synthetic substances present in the environment, which imitate the effects of endogenous oestrogen. Oestrogenic substances were identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry in effluent water from a Swedish sewage treatment works receiving mainly domestic wastewater. Substances found include the synthetic oestrogen used in contraceptives 17 alpha-ethinyloestradiol (4.5 ng l(-1)), the natural oestrogens oestrone (5.8 ng l(-1)) and 17 beta-oestradiol (1.1 ng l(-1)), and the weaker non-steroidal oestrogens 4-nonylphenol (840 ng l(-1)) and bisphenol A (490 ng l(-1)). Ethinyloestradiol exceeded levels shown to be oestrogenic to fish by 45 times. The oestrogenicity of the effluent water was investigated by introducing juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in cages downstream of the sewage treatment works. After 2 weeks, all oestrogens indicated were present in the bile of the fish, and the oestrogen inducible protein, vitellogenin, was found in large amounts in the plasma (1.5 mg ml(-1)), as determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blotting. Thus, a widely used synthetic oestrogen affects the endocrine systems of fish exposed to sewage effluent water.