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Selective pressure of antibiotic pollution on bacteria of importance to public health

Tello, Alfredo, Austin, Brian, Telfer, Trevor C·2012·Environmental Health Perspectives
DOI 10.1289/ehp.1104650PMC PMC3440082
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Abstract

Background: Many bacteria of clinical importance survive and may grow in different environments. Antibiotic pollution may exert on them a selective pressure leading to an increase in the prevalence of resistance. Objectives: In this study we sought to determine whether environmental concentrations of antibiotics and concentrations representing action limits used in environmental risk assessment may exert a selective pressure on clinically relevant bacteria in the environment. Methods: We used bacterial inhibition as an assessment end point to link antibiotic selective pressures to the prevalence of resistance in bacterial populations. Species sensitivity distributions were derived for three antibiotics by fitting log-logistic models to end points calculated from minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) distributions based on worldwide data collated by the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST). To place bacteria represented in these distributions in a broader context, we performed a brief phylogenetic analysis. The potentially affected fraction of bacterial genera at measured environmental concentrations of antibiotics and environmental risk assessment action limits was used as a proxy for antibiotic selective pressure. Measured environmental concentrations and environmental risk assessment action limits were also directly compared to wild-type cut-off values. Results: The potentially affected fraction of bacterial genera estimated based on antibiotic concentrations measured in water environments is ≤ 7%. We estimated that measured environmental concentrations in river sediments, swine feces lagoons, liquid manure, and farmed soil inhibit wild-type populations in up to 60%, 92%, 100%, and 30% of bacterial genera, respectively. At concentrations used as action limits in environmental risk assessment, erythromycin and ciprofloxacin were estimated to inhibit wild-type populations in up to 25% and 76% of bacterial genera. Conclusions: Measured environmental concentrations of antibiotics, as well as concentrations representing environmental risk assessment action limits, are high enough to exert a selective pressure on clinically relevant bacteria that may lead to an increase in the prevalence of resistance.

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  • Antibiotic resistance is ubiquitous in the environment but is exacerbated in places with diverse bacterial communities and pronounced anthropogenic pollution.

    “Antibiotic resistance is considered ubiquitous in the environment but is exacerbated in places with diverse bacterial communities and pro­ nounced anthropogenic pollution (Finley et al., 2013; Tello et al., 2012).”

    From Review of emerging contaminants in green stormwater infrastructure: antibiotic resistance genes, microplastics, tire wear particles, PFAS, and temperature (2024) · cites this paper as Tello et al., 2012

    The Conclusions identify antibiotic-polluted river sediments, liquid manure, and farmed soil as likely hot spots for the development of resistance. The Discussion says pollution has the potential to increase resistance in clinically relevant bacteria. Our copy does not establish that resistance is ubiquitous in the environment or that bacterial community diversity itself exacerbates it. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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Cited by

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Authors
Tello, A., Austin, B., & Telfer, T. C.
Affiliations
Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom
Venue
Environmental Health Perspectives
Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Published
2012-05-08
Volume
120
Issue
8
Pages
1100-1106
ISSN
  • 0091-6765
  • 1552-9924
DOI
10.1289/ehp.1104650
PMC
PMC3440082
Cited by
332
References
0
Language
en
Licence
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (vor, 2061 d)

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