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Antibiotic Resistance in Marine Microbial Communities Proximal to a Florida Sewage Outfall System
Antibiotics
  • Dale W. Griffin, US Geological Survey
  • Kenneth Banks, Broward County Environmental Planning and Community Resilience Division
  • Kurtis Gregg, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Sarah Shedler, University of South Florida
  • Brian K. Walker, Nova Southeastern University
ORCID
0000-0001-8385-7066
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-11-2020
Keywords
  • Marine pollution,
  • Antibiotic resistance,
  • Sediments,
  • Ocean outfall
Abstract

Water samples were collected at several wastewater treatment plants in southeast Florida, and water and sediment samples were collected along and around one outfall pipe, as well as along several transects extending both north and south of the respective outfall outlet. Two sets of samples were collected to address potential seasonal differences, including 38 in the wet season (June 2018) and 42 in the dry season (March 2019). Samples were screened for the presence/absence of 15 select antibiotic resistance gene targets using the polymerase chain reaction. A contrast between seasons was found, with a higher frequency of detections occurring in the wet season and fewer during the dry season. These data illustrate an anthropogenic influence on offshore microbial genetics and seasonal flux regarding associated health risks to recreational users and the regional ecosystem.

DOI
10.3390/antibiotics9030118
Comments

© 2020 by the authors. 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 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Additional Comments
NOAA grant #: NA15NOS4820036
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Citation Information
Dale W. Griffin, Kenneth Banks, Kurtis Gregg, Sarah Shedler, et al.. "Antibiotic Resistance in Marine Microbial Communities Proximal to a Florida Sewage Outfall System" Antibiotics Vol. 9 Iss. 118 (2020) p. 1 - 10 ISSN: 2079-6382
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/brian_k_walker/94/