ArticlePloS one2020
Fate of antibiotic resistant E. coli and antibiotic resistance genes during full scale conventional and advanced anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploratory analysis of livestock waste treatment impacts on microbial diversity and antimicrobial resistance gene abundance.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Targeting Microorganisms in Lignocellulosic Biomass to Produce Biogas and Ensure Sanitation and Hygiene.Microorganisms · 2026Review
- Characterisation of Plasmid-Associated Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Coastal MarineInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Insights into kinetic and regression models developed to estimate the abundance of antibiotic-resistant genes during biological digestion of wastewater sludge.Journal of water and health · 2025Review
- Characterization of antibiotic resistance genes and mobile genetic elements in Escherichia coli isolated from captive black bears.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Occurrence of 40 sanitary indicators in French digestates derived from different anaerobic digestion processes and raw organic wastes from agricultural and urban origin.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Impact of Anthropogenic Activities on the Dissemination of ARGs in the Environment-A Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Effect of Wastewater Treatment on Bacterial Community, Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and Endoparasites.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and their genes (ARGs) have become recognised as significant emerging environmental pollutants. ARB and ARGs in sewage sludge can be transmitted back to humans via the food chain when sludge is recycled to agricultural land, making sludge treatment key to control the release of ARB and ARGs to the environment. This study investigated the fate of antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli and a large set of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) during full scale anaerobic digestion (AD) of sewage sludge at two U.K. wastewater treatment plants and evaluated the impact of thermal hydrolysis (TH) pre-treatment on their abundance and diversity. Absolute abundance of 13 ARGs and the Class I integron gene intI1 was calculated using single gene quantitative (q) PCR. High through-put qPCR analysis was also used to determine the relative abundance of 370 ARGs and mobile genetic elements (MGEs). Results revealed that TH reduced the absolute abundance of all ARGs tested and intI1 by 10-12,000 fold. After subsequent AD, a rebound effect was seen in many ARGs. The fate of ARGs during AD without pre-treatment was variable. Relative abundance of most ARGs and MGEs decreased or fluctuated, with the exception of macrolide resistance genes, which were enriched at both plants, and tetracyline and glycopeptide resistance genes which were enriched in the plant employing TH. Diversity of ARGs and MGEs decreased in both plants during sludge treatment. Principal coordinates analysis revealed that ARGs are clearly distinguished according to treatment step, whereas MGEs in digested sludge cluster according to site. This study provides a comprehensive within-digestor analysis of the fate of ARGs, MGEs and antibiotic resistant E. coli and highlights the effectiveness of AD, particularly when TH is used as a pre-treatment, at reducing the abundance of most ARGs and MGEs in sludgeand preventing their release into the environment.
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