Prevalence of antibiotic resistance in the tropical rivers of Sri Lanka and India

Manish Kumar; Sulfikar; Tushara Chaminda; Arbind K Patel; Himaya Sewwandi; Payal Mazumder; Madhvi Joshi; Ryo Honda

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2020.109765

Prevalence of antibiotic resistance in the tropical rivers of Sri Lanka and India

Environ Res. 2020 Sep:188:109765. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109765. Epub 2020 Jun 6.

Authors

Manish Kumar¹, Sulfikar², Tushara Chaminda³, Arbind K Patel⁴, Himaya Sewwandi³, Payal Mazumder⁵, Madhvi Joshi⁶, Ryo Honda⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, 382355, India. Electronic address: manish.kumar@iitgn.ac.in.
² Universitas Negeri Makassar, Makassar, Indonesia.
³ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Ruhuna, Galle, Sri Lanka.
⁴ Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, 382355, India.
⁵ Centre for the Environment, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam, 781039, India.
⁶ Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre, Department of Science and Technology, Gujarat, 382016, India.
⁷ Faculty of Geosciences and Civil Engineering, Institute of Science and Engineering, Kanazawa University, Japan.

PMID: 32554273
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109765

Abstract

We evaluate the imprints of urbanization, landuse and lifestyle on the prevalence and provenance of antibiotic resistance in the tropical rivers of Sri Lanka (Kelani and Gin) and India (Sabarmati, and Brahmaputra River). The prevalence of E. coli in the Kelani, Sabarmati, and Brahmaputra Rivers was in the range of 10-27, 267-76,600, and <50 CFU ml^-1 respectively. Isolated E. coli colonies were subjected to six antibiotics to assess their resistance. We found higher resistance to old generation antibiotics like tetracycline (TC), and sulfamethoxazole (ST) transcends the resistance for fluoroquinolones like norfloxacin (NFX), ciprofloxacin (CIP), and levofloxacin (LVX). Interestingly, both Indian rivers had exhibited relatively higher resistance to TC and ST than the Kelani river or Gin River, implying that the Sri Lankan situation is relatively less critical. At genetic level the resistance for β-lactams, fluoroquinolones and sulphonamides, were detected in many samples, as reported globally. While the resistance genes for aac-(6')-1b-cr, qnrS and sul1 were detected in both Sri Lankan and Indian Rivers, bla_TEM and ampC were specific to the Indian Rivers only. Decoupling of the prevalence of metal contamination and antibiotic resistance has been noticed in India and Sri Lanka. Study implies that urbanization, landuse, and lifestyle (ULL) are the three most critical factors governing multidrug resistance (MDR) and fecal contamination.

Keywords: Drug-resistance; E. coli; India; Kelani river; Resistant genes; Sri Lanka.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology
Drug Resistance, Microbial
Escherichia coli* / genetics
India / epidemiology
Prevalence
Rivers*
Sri Lanka / epidemiology

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents