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Helping bacteria with antibiotics 

By: Rodolfo Alcorta

Over the past decades china has been in the spot of emerging diseases, some are related to the overpopulation in several regions of the country in relation to sanitary regulations and to the consumption of exotic animals. But many of the investigations are not related to the over exposure of microorganisms to antibiotics making them resistant to these. A region of interest is the Haihe River catchment in China that has been loaded with high amounts of antibiotics that are related to the increased in food demand due to the increase in population and livestock farming. It is of huge importance the monitoring of these antibiotics to know the ecotoxicological impact it can have on aquatic flora and fauna. This investigation took place during one year from 2016-2017 where human and animal antibiotics were tested. Some antibiotics tested were tracked to be banned in previous years that the investigation was done, this could say that usage of prohibited antibiotics are still in use and causing damage to the environment. The main sources of contamination were wastewater treatment facilities during wet or rain seasons than in summer or dry season. More investigation is needed to look how antibiotics in the environment in this case river are affecting the ecosystem rather than helping it. Using in huge quantities, can suggests that it is time to humanity to change to a more pro ecologically source of food in order to reduce carbon print in the ecosystem, as can be seen in this case with the livestock farming .  


The target subcatchment and location of sampling sites in Haihe river.

link to research article Link

References 

Lei, et al, K. (2019, June 18). Spatial and seasonal variations of antibiotics in river waters in the Haihe River Catchment in China and ecotoxicological risk assessment. Retrieved September 22, 2020, from https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0160412018330447-gr1.sml




Comments

  1. M MendezOctober 25, 2020 at 3:40 PM

    By understanding that the antibiotics are being distributed into the environment when treatment facilities flood, could this then be the focus of environmental policy to promote environmental sustainability? I think you're point in the reduction of animal production could address the problem of pollution prevention for environmental sustainability. It is difficult to address this as the use of antibiotics is the issue here, and it is a necessity to reduce disease in confined animal facilities.

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