Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Presence Of Antibiotic Resistance Genes From Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluent In Northwest Arkansas, Ryan Macleod, Mary Savin

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) among bacterial populations are causing increasing concern with medical and agricultural implications. While the effluent of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is treated with a variety of antimicrobial methods, bacteria and the genetic material that is able to pass on antibiotic resistance to environmental populations are not completely destroyed. Ampicillin (amp), tetracycline (tet), and sulfonamide (sul) antibiotics have been detected in Northwest Arkansas (NWA) streams, and IncP plasmids—which are especially notorious for containing antibiotic resistance genes and have been detected after disinfection in NWA WWTPs—are known to carry ARGs for those antibiotics. The objective of this inquiry …