Occurrence of antibiotics and risk of antibiotic resistance evolution in selected Kenyan wastewaters, surface waters and sediments
Year of publication
2020
Authors
Kairigo, Pius; Ngumba, Elijah; Sundberg, Lotta-Riina; Gachanja, Anthony; Tuhkanen, Tuula
Abstract
Active pharmaceutical ingredients, especially antibiotics, are micropollutants whose continuous flow into hydrological cycles has the potential to mediate antibiotic resistance in the environment and cause toxicity to sensitive organisms. Here, we investigated the levels of selected antibiotics in four wastewater treatment plants and the receiving water bodies. The measured environmental concentrations were compared with the proposed compound-specific predicted no-effect concentration for resistance selection values. The concentration of doxycycline, amoxicillin, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin within the influents, effluents, surface waters and river sediments ranged between 0.2 and 49.3 μgL−1, 0.1 to 21.4 μgL−1; ˂ 0.1 and 56.6 μgL−1; and 1.8 and 47.4 μgkg−1, respectively. Compared to the effluent concentrations, the surface waters upstream and downstream one of the four studied treatment plants showed two to five times higher concentrations of ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin and sulfamethoxazole. The risk quotient for bacterial resistance selection in effluent and surface water ranged between ˂0.1 and 53, indicating a medium to high risk of antibiotic resistance developing within the study areas. Therefore, risk mitigation and prevention strategies are a matter of priority in the affected areas.
Show moreOrganizations and authors
Publication type
Publication format
Article
Parent publication type
Journal
Article type
Original article
Audience
ScientificPeer-reviewed
Peer-ReviewedMINEDU's publication type classification code
A1 Journal article (refereed), original researchPublication channel information
Journal
Publisher
Volume
720
Article number
137580
ISSN
Publication forum
Publication forum level
2
Open access
Open access in the publisher’s service
No
Self-archived
Yes
Other information
Fields of science
Environmental sciences; Biochemistry, cell and molecular biology
Keywords
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Publication country
Netherlands
Internationality of the publisher
International
Language
English
International co-publication
Yes
Co-publication with a company
No
DOI
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137580
The publication is included in the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Publication data collection
Yes