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Antibiotics, Antibiotic Resistance Genes, and Bacterial Community Composition in Fresh Water Aquaculture Environment in China

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Environmental antibiotic resistance has drawn increasing attention due to its great threat to human health. In this study, we investigated concentrations of antibiotics (tetracyclines, sulfonamides and (fluoro)quinolones) and abundances of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), including tetracycline resistance genes, sulfonamide resistance genes, and plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes, and analyzed bacterial community composition in aquaculture environment in Guangdong, China. The concentrations of sulfametoxydiazine, sulfamethazine, sulfamethoxazole, oxytetracycline, chlorotetracycline, doxycycline, ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, and enrofloxacin were as high as 446 μg kg−1 and 98.6 ng L−1 in sediment and water samples, respectively. The relative abundances (ARG copies/16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene copies) of ARGs (sul1, sul2, sul3, tetM, tetO, tetW, tetS, tetQ, tetX, tetB/P, qepA, oqxA, oqxB, aac(6′)-Ib, and qnrS) were as high as 2.8 × 10−2. The dominant phyla were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes in sediment samples and Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes in water samples. The genera associated with pathogens were also observed, such as Acinetobacter, Arcobacter, and Clostridium. This study comprehensively investigated antibiotics, ARGs, and bacterial community composition in aquaculture environment in China. The results indicated that fish ponds are reservoirs of ARGs and the presence of potential resistant and pathogen-associated taxonomic groups in fish ponds might imply the potential risk to human health.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grant 2013CB 127203 from the National Key Basic Research Program of China and grant U1031004 from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. National Laboratory of Safety Evaluation (Environmental Assessment) of Veterinary Drugs, College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wushan Road, Guangzhou, 510642, China

      Wenguang Xiong, Yongxue Sun, Xueyao Ding, Yafei Li, Mianzhi Wang & Zhenling Zeng

    2. Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, China

      Tong Zhang

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    1. Wenguang Xiong
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    Correspondence to Zhenling Zeng.

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    Wenguang Xiong and Yongxue Sun contributed equally to this work.

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    Xiong, W., Sun, Y., Zhang, T. et al. Antibiotics, Antibiotic Resistance Genes, and Bacterial Community Composition in Fresh Water Aquaculture Environment in China. Microb Ecol 70, 425–432 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-015-0583-x

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