Pollution characteristics of livestock faeces and the key driver of the spread of antibiotic resistance genes

Zhengfu Yue; Jing Zhang; Zhigao Zhou; Changfeng Ding; Liping Wan; Jia Liu; Liumeng Chen; Xingxiang Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124957

Pollution characteristics of livestock faeces and the key driver of the spread of antibiotic resistance genes

J Hazard Mater. 2021 May 5:409:124957. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124957. Epub 2020 Dec 29.

Authors

Zhengfu Yue¹, Jing Zhang¹, Zhigao Zhou², Changfeng Ding³, Liping Wan⁴, Jia Liu⁵, Liumeng Chen⁶, Xingxiang Wang⁷

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; Ecological Experimental Station of Red Soil, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yingtan 335211, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ Jiangxi Zhenghe Ecological Agriculture Company Limited, Xinyu 338008, China.
⁵ Institute of Soil and Fertilizer & Resources and Environment, Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanchang 330200, China.
⁶ Institute of Applied Agricultural Microorganism, Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanchang 330200, China.
⁷ CAS Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; Ecological Experimental Station of Red Soil, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yingtan 335211, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: xxwang@issas.ac.cn.

PMID: 33418295
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124957

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in livestock and poultry faeces has attracted considerable amounts of attention. However, in the actual breeding environment, the key driver of the spread of ARGs and which bacteria are involved remain unclear. This study investigated 19 antibiotics and 4 heavy metals in 147 animal faeces. The results showed that piglet faeces exhibited the highest levels of antibiotics and heavy metals. Twelve ARGs, 4 mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and bacterial communities of piglet faeces from 6 pig farms were further assessed to determine the key driver and relevant mechanism of the spread of ARGs. Sulphonamides (SAs) explained 36.5% of the variance (P < 0.05) of the bacterial community and were significantly related to 8 genes (P < 0.01), indicating that SAs dominated the spread of ARGs and should be tightly supervised. Structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that SAs increased the abundance of ARGs via two pathways: horizontal transfer of ARGs (involving 10 genera) and vertical transfer of ARGs (involving 26 genera). These results improve our understanding of the potential hosts involved in the spread of ARGs, suggesting that monitoring of the above potential hosts is also important in animal feeding practice.

Keywords: Horizontal transfer; Potential hosts; Structural equation modelling; Sulphonamides; Vertical transfer.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Animals
Anti-Bacterial Agents* / pharmacology
Drug Resistance, Microbial / genetics
Feces
Genes, Bacterial
Livestock*
Manure
Swine

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Manure