Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in duck and fish production ponds with integrated or non-integrated mode.
Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are emerging micropollutants with environmental persistence. Aquaculture environments are considered as potential reservoirs for ARGs pollution and horizontal gene transfer (HGT). This study analyzed water and sediment from eight culture ponds (integrated culture: duck-fish pond; monoculture: duck pond and fish pond) and a control pond (without any aquaculture activity) in Zhongshan, South China. Seventeen types of ARGs were detected in all ponds, which conferring resistance to four classes of antibiotics including tetracycline (tetA, tetB, tetC, tetE, tetG, tetL, tetA-P, tetM, tetO, tetS, tetW and tetX), AmpC beta-lactamase products (EBC and FOX), sulfonamide (sul1 and sul2) and erythromycin (ermA), with class 1 integron (intI1) as motility gene. The total concentrations of detected ARGs in culture pond water were much higher than control (about 1.6-4.0 times). Integrated culture showed lowest absolute abundance of ∑ARGs in water (3.686 × 107copies mL-1) and the highest in sediment (4.574 × 108copies g-1). Monoculture ponds showed higher relative abundance of ∑ARGs both in water (fish pond: 0.5149) and sediment (duck pond: 0.4919). As the main contributor to the ARGs abundance and significant correlations with ∑tet, ∑ARGs and intI1 (P < 0.01), tetA was suggested to be a potential indicator for the abundance of tetracycline resistance genes in these classes of aquaculture modes in the Pearl River Delta. This study provides a case for the ARGs abundance in aquaculture and as a reference for the upcoming health risk assessment in aquatic environment.
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
Lu
L
Huang
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China. Electronic address: hopeybxu@163.com.
Yan-Bin
YB
Xu
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
Jia-Xin
JX
Xu
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
Jia-Yin
JY
Ling
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
Jin-Liang
JL
Chen
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
Jia-Le
JL
Zhou
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
Li
L
Zheng
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
Qing-Ping
QP
Du
D000818:Animals; D017756:Aquaculture; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002681:China; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial / Q000235:genetics*; D004372:Ducks; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005399:Fishes; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000032:analysis; D061005:Ponds / Q000032:analysis; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D014873:Water Pollutants
Antibiotic resistance genes; Aquaculture; Integrated culture mode; TetA; The Pearl River Delta