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Digestate from Agricultural Biogas Plants as a Reservoir of Antimicrobials and Antibiotic Resistance Genes—Implications for the Environment

Antimicrobials and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in substrates processed during anaerobic digestion in agricultural biogas plants (BPs) can reach the digestate ((D)), which is used as fertilizer. Antimicrobials and ARGs can be transferred to agricultural land, which increases their concentratio...

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Autores principales: Wolak, Izabela, Bajkacz, Sylwia, Harnisz, Monika, Stando, Klaudia, Męcik, Magdalena, Korzeniewska, Ewa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9915926/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36768038
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032672
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author Wolak, Izabela
Bajkacz, Sylwia
Harnisz, Monika
Stando, Klaudia
Męcik, Magdalena
Korzeniewska, Ewa
author_facet Wolak, Izabela
Bajkacz, Sylwia
Harnisz, Monika
Stando, Klaudia
Męcik, Magdalena
Korzeniewska, Ewa
author_sort Wolak, Izabela
collection PubMed
description Antimicrobials and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in substrates processed during anaerobic digestion in agricultural biogas plants (BPs) can reach the digestate ((D)), which is used as fertilizer. Antimicrobials and ARGs can be transferred to agricultural land, which increases their concentrations in the environment. The concentrations of 13 antibiotics in digestate samples from biogas plants (BPs) were investigated in this study. The abundance of ARGs encoding resistance to beta-lactams, tetracyclines, sulfonamides, fluoroquinolones, macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin antibiotics, and the integrase genes were determined in the analyzed samples. The presence of cadmium, lead, nickel, chromium, zinc, and mercury was also examined. Antimicrobials were not eliminated during anaerobic digestion. Their concentrations differed in digestates obtained from different substrates and in liquid and solid fractions (ranging from 62.8 ng/g clarithromycin in the solid fraction of sewage sludge digestate to 1555.9 ng/L doxycycline in the liquid fraction of cattle manure digestate). Digestates obtained from plant-based substrates were characterized by high concentrations of ARGs (ranging from 5.73 × 10(2) copies/g(D) cfxA to 2.98 × 10(9) copies/g(D) sul1). The samples also contained mercury (0.5 mg/kg dry mass (dm)) and zinc (830 mg/kg dm). The results confirmed that digestate is a reservoir of ARGs (5.73 × 10(2) to 8.89 × 10(10) copies/g(D)) and heavy metals (HMs). In addition, high concentrations of integrase genes (10(5) to 10(7) copies/g(D)) in the samples indicate that mobile genetic elements may be involved in the spread of antibiotic resistance. The study suggested that the risk of soil contamination with antibiotics, HMs, and ARGs is high in farms where digestate is used as fertilizer.
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spelling pubmed-99159262023-02-11 Digestate from Agricultural Biogas Plants as a Reservoir of Antimicrobials and Antibiotic Resistance Genes—Implications for the Environment Wolak, Izabela Bajkacz, Sylwia Harnisz, Monika Stando, Klaudia Męcik, Magdalena Korzeniewska, Ewa Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Antimicrobials and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in substrates processed during anaerobic digestion in agricultural biogas plants (BPs) can reach the digestate ((D)), which is used as fertilizer. Antimicrobials and ARGs can be transferred to agricultural land, which increases their concentrations in the environment. The concentrations of 13 antibiotics in digestate samples from biogas plants (BPs) were investigated in this study. The abundance of ARGs encoding resistance to beta-lactams, tetracyclines, sulfonamides, fluoroquinolones, macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin antibiotics, and the integrase genes were determined in the analyzed samples. The presence of cadmium, lead, nickel, chromium, zinc, and mercury was also examined. Antimicrobials were not eliminated during anaerobic digestion. Their concentrations differed in digestates obtained from different substrates and in liquid and solid fractions (ranging from 62.8 ng/g clarithromycin in the solid fraction of sewage sludge digestate to 1555.9 ng/L doxycycline in the liquid fraction of cattle manure digestate). Digestates obtained from plant-based substrates were characterized by high concentrations of ARGs (ranging from 5.73 × 10(2) copies/g(D) cfxA to 2.98 × 10(9) copies/g(D) sul1). The samples also contained mercury (0.5 mg/kg dry mass (dm)) and zinc (830 mg/kg dm). The results confirmed that digestate is a reservoir of ARGs (5.73 × 10(2) to 8.89 × 10(10) copies/g(D)) and heavy metals (HMs). In addition, high concentrations of integrase genes (10(5) to 10(7) copies/g(D)) in the samples indicate that mobile genetic elements may be involved in the spread of antibiotic resistance. The study suggested that the risk of soil contamination with antibiotics, HMs, and ARGs is high in farms where digestate is used as fertilizer. MDPI 2023-02-02 /pmc/articles/PMC9915926/ /pubmed/36768038 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032672 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wolak, Izabela
Bajkacz, Sylwia
Harnisz, Monika
Stando, Klaudia
Męcik, Magdalena
Korzeniewska, Ewa
Digestate from Agricultural Biogas Plants as a Reservoir of Antimicrobials and Antibiotic Resistance Genes—Implications for the Environment
title Digestate from Agricultural Biogas Plants as a Reservoir of Antimicrobials and Antibiotic Resistance Genes—Implications for the Environment
title_full Digestate from Agricultural Biogas Plants as a Reservoir of Antimicrobials and Antibiotic Resistance Genes—Implications for the Environment
title_fullStr Digestate from Agricultural Biogas Plants as a Reservoir of Antimicrobials and Antibiotic Resistance Genes—Implications for the Environment
title_full_unstemmed Digestate from Agricultural Biogas Plants as a Reservoir of Antimicrobials and Antibiotic Resistance Genes—Implications for the Environment
title_short Digestate from Agricultural Biogas Plants as a Reservoir of Antimicrobials and Antibiotic Resistance Genes—Implications for the Environment
title_sort digestate from agricultural biogas plants as a reservoir of antimicrobials and antibiotic resistance genes—implications for the environment
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9915926/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36768038
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032672
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