Occurrence and elimination of antibiotics at four sewage treatment plants in Japan and their effects on bacterial ammonia oxidation

Abstract

The occurrence and elimination of seventeen antibiotics (three macrolides: azithromycin, clarithromycin and roxithromycin; five quinolones: ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, levofloxacin, nalidixic acid and norfloxacin; five sulfonamides: sulfadimethoxine, sulfadimizine, sulfamerazine, sulfamethoxazole and sulfamonomethoxine; and others: tetracycline, lincomycin, salinomycin and trimethoprim) were investigated at four full-scale sewage treatment plants in Japan. The highest concentration was recorded for clarithromycin (1,129 to 4,820 ng/L) in influent, followed by azithromycin (160 to 1,347 ng/L), levofloxacin (255 to 587 ng/L) and norfloxacin (155 to 486 ng/L). A vary inconsistence picture was obtained with negative to over 90% removal. Nalidixic acid (53 to 100%) exhibited higher removal efficiency followed by norfloxacin (75 to 95%), levofloxacin (40 to 90%), ciprofloxacin (60 to 83%) and enrofloxacin (38 to 74%). Among macrolides, clarithromycin (50 to 88%) and azithromycin (34 to 86%) showed relatively higher removal efficiency than roxithromycin (-32 to 59%). For most of the antibiotics removal efficiency was higher in A2O and AO based secondary treatment process than CAS process. The effect of the antibiotics on bacterial ammonia oxidation determined by oxygen uptake rate presented that there was no significant effect below 0.05 mg/L of each antibiotics. Even at the same concentration, antibiotics in mixed condition had higher inhibition effects than individuals.

Profile and behavior of antiviral drugs in aquatic environments of the Pearl River Delta, China

“…Ganciclovir and ribavirin were below the quantification limits in the influent, whereas the other antivirals were not detected in the wastewater (Table S1, Supporting material). This result was quite different from previous reports for wastewater in Japan and Europe in which oseltamivir and oseltamivir acid were frequently detected (Fick et al, 2007;Ghosh et al, 2009Ghosh et al, , 2010aPrasse et al, 2010;Soderstrom et al, 2009;Singer et al, 2008;Slater et al, 2011). In addition, abacavir, lamivudine, nevirapine, penciclovir, stavudine, and zidovudine were detected at several to hundreds of ng L −1 in the wastewater of Germany (Prasse et al, 2010) whereas the concentrations of lamivudine and nevirapine were approximately 1 μg L −1 in treated wastewater in Kenya (Koreje et al, 2012).…”

“…Besides, antivirals may produce resistance strains of pathogens in human and animals, which are of particular concerns (Hauser et al, 2011;Kiso et al, 2004;Olsen et al, 2006). It has been reported that Japan has a high rate of emerging resistance to oseltamivir, probably because it is the country where oseltamivir is used most (Ghosh et al, 2009;Soderstrom et al, 2009). In addition, oseltamivir in the environment may also impact the bacterial community structure (Caracciolo et al, 2010).…”

“…There have been reports about occurrence of oseltamivir and oseltamivir carboxylate in wastewater and river water of Japan and Europe at tens of ng L −1 to low μg L −1 levels (Azuma et al, 2012;Ellis, 2010;Fick et al, 2007;Ghosh et al, 2009;Leknes et al, 2012;Prasse et al, 2010;Soderstrom et al, 2009;Takanami et al, 2010). Prasse et al (2010Prasse et al ( , 2011 have also reported the presence of other antivirals, including acyclovir and its metabolite carboxy-acyclovir, zidovudine, lamivudine, abacavir, and penciclovir in wastewater, river water, and even groundwater in Germany.…”

Environmental contamination by fluoroquinolones

“…In 1970, the first report on pharmacologically active compounds in the water environment was published (Gosh et al, 2009), but the presence of drugs in the environment became an emerging concern only in the mid-1990s, when new analytical technologies were available (Homem, Santos, 2011).…”

“…As antibiotics are highly bioactive compounds, there are serious concerns over their role in enhancing antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria (Gosh et al, 2009), rendering current antibiotics ineffective in the treatment of numerous diseases (Homem, Santos, 2011). Antibiotics can also affect the endocrine system of fish and be toxic to algae and invertebrates (Guinea et al, 2009a(Guinea et al, , 2009b.…”