AWARDS | Innovation Grants2005 - 2006 RECIPIENT Tetracycline Transport Through Poultry Farm Soils and Aquifer Materials: Influence on Bacterial Tetracycline Resistance Abstract
The widespread use of antibiotics in poultry production facilities introduces antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB), and antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) into local soils. The presence of these three components can lead to an amplification of antibiotic resistance genes in microbial communities, including those not directly associated with the production facilities (for example, in downstream water bodies). This in turn poses a public health threat, particularly when potential human pathogens become drug resistant. While it is clear that extensive use of antibiotics results in the propagation of ARG, relatively few studies have quantified the transport phenomena associated with the spread of antibiotic resistance – i.e., the subsurface movement of antibiotics, ARG, and ARB. We hypothesize that the subsurface transport of dissolved antibiotic chemicals in ground water can be a predominant mechanism for the spread of antibiotic resistance genes. To explore this hypothesis we will perform batch and column experiments with soils and underlying aquifer materials collected from poultry farms. Specifically, we will (1) perform batch experiments to measure the sorption isotherms for the antibiotic tetracycline (Tc) in various soil and aquifer samples, (2) measure Tc breakthrough curves, and (3) perform column experiments to determine if antibiotic transport is correlated with acquisition of antibiotic resistance in naïve bacteria (i.e. bacteria that have not previously been exposed to this antibiotic). Experiments will be accompanied by numerical modeling to guide the experimental design and to develop hypotheses regarding the large-scale transport of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. The proposed work will provide a better understanding of how Tc and ARG travel in the subsurface. The project is interdisciplinary in nature, since it requires expertise in environmental fluid mechanics and transport, as well as microbiology. The results of this project will stimulate collaborations with other investigators (e.g., Drs. Halden & Silbergeld at BSPH). Principal Investigator: Markus Hilpert, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and
Environmental Engineering, JHU
Co-Investigators: William Ball, PhD, Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental
Engineering, JHU
Mandy Ward, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and
Environmental Engineering, JHU
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