Journal of Food: Microbiology, Safety & Hygiene
Open Access

Wastewater from a pig slaughterhouse as a reservoir for clinically relevant antibiotic-resistant pathogens and their dissemination into surface water

Joint Event on International Conference on Food Safety & Regulatory & 3^rd International Conference on Water Microbiology, Water Sustainability and Reuse Technologies

December 03-04, 2018 | Chicago, USA

Mykhailo Savin, Celine Heinemann, Gabriele Bierbaum, Sophia Dohlen, Marijo Parcina, Esther Sib and Judith Kreyenschmidt

University of Bonn, Germany

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Food Microbiol Saf Hyg

Abstract :

Background and objectives: Slaughterhouse wastewater is considered a hotspot for antibiotic-resistant pathogens (ARPs). The aim was to investigate the occurrence of selected clinically relevant ARPs in wastewater from a pig slaughterhouse and its municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and to examine their emergence after the treatment process in the municipal WWTP.

Methods: Wastewater samples (n=38) were taken along the production chain inside a pig slaughterhouse in Germany with a slaughtering capacity of 11,000 pigs/day. Its municipal WWTP was sampled as well (n=12). Samples were screened for the presence of ARP using CHROM agar selective media. The final identification was done by MALDI-TOF MS and resistance was confirmed by determining of MICs using the ID/AST testing system. The resistant strains were further characterized by different molecular typing approaches. The colistin-resistant strains were screened for mcr-1/ mcr-2/mcr-3/mcr-4.

Results: All wastewater samples including the outflow and the preflood of the municipal WWTP were positive for ARPs. Their occurrence at the sampling points and species distribution was done. 15.7% of the isolated strains from the slaughterhouse (n=166) were multidrug-resistant (MDR) and 3.0% were colistin-resistant. The percentage of MDR strains from the municipal WWTP (n=28) was 96.5%; of these, 10.7% were colistin-resistant. The colistin-resistant isolates (n=8) were mcr-negative. The prevalence of carbapenem-resistant strains was low at 1.2% and 3.4% among the strains from the slaughterhouse and the municipal WWTP, respectively. The abundance of extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli was low at 7.1%. The tested MRSA strains from the slaughterhouse (n=57) were known livestock-associated types.

Conclusions: Wastewater from the investigated pig slaughterhouse is a reservoir for clinically relevant ARPs. Despite the elimination of bacterial load in the municipal WWTP, they could still be found in its outflow and preflood. This could pose a threat to human health and needs to be further investigated.

Biography :

Mykhailo Savin has studied Food Technology at the University of Bonn and got his MSc degree in 2016. From 2016 on, he has been working as a PhD student at the Institute of Animal Sciences at the University of Bonn. He is involved in the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research)-joint project “HyReKa”, where he investigates the occurrence and dissemination of clinically relevant antibiotic-resistant pathogens from poultry and pig slaughterhouses via wastewater and sewage water treatment plants into surface waters. Based on these results, recommendations for the prevention of dissemination should be formulated.

E-mail: s7mysavi@uni-bonn.de