Antimicrobial resistance in engineered wastewater systems – Predicting the impacts of dynamic exposure levels to antimicrobial agents on AMR attenuation and amplification

Project Information

IDYEA

Grant agreement ID: 893130

DOI

10.3030/893130

Project closed

EC signature date 17 April 2020

Start date 1 April 2021

End date 15 April 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 224 933,76

EU contribution

€ 224 933,76

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF BATH
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IDYEA (Antimicrobial resistance in engineered wastewater systems – Predicting the impacts of dynamic exposure levels to antimicrobial agents on AMR attenuation and amplification)

Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2023-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) development and spread in the aquatic environment poses a growing public health risk with wastewater treatment (WWT), being the most important but still un-optimised barrier in confronting the global water and nutrient scarcity challenges. This global issue affects both developed and developing countries and the overuse or misuse of antibiotics may make AMR the leading death cause by 2050 on the globe. As basic elements of modern urbanization and sanitation, engineered water systems and water utility infrastructures have key role in mitigating environmental risks of anthropogenic pollutants. Europe’s Water Framework Directive aims to achieve good qualitative and quantitative status of all water bodies. Challenges to the effective separation and recovery of water resources from hazardous materials, notably, antibiotic residues and AMR in WWT were recently identified. Although there is a growing research focusing on AMR, one of the shortcomings of previous studies is that AMR development was experimentally assessed at static antimicrobial exposure levels that may suffer from lack of environmental representativeness as a result of significant variations in the emission of antimicrobials in urban catchments incl. water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs).
IDYEA takes on this challenge by addressing the main objectives as follows: (i) experimental modelling of dynamics in the occurrence and fate of selected antimicrobials; (ii) developing dynamic simulation models for predicting AMR spread at different time scales in WWT; and (iii) establishing of a new environmental risk assessment (ERA) framework with stronger prediction power. The main research concept is presented in Fig. 1.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The inter-sectorial and interdisciplinary IDYEA was hosted at University of Bath, UK with a secondment supported by Technical University of Denmark. The project trained one experienced researcher in areas of analytical chemistry, molecular microbiology and bioinformatics, statistical data evaluation methods and process modelling. IDYEA offered excellent opportunities for mutual knowledge exchange and technology development. IDYEA was carried out via seven work packages, including experimentation, model identification and risk assessment, the researcher was fully involved to the project management and supported by advanced leadership trainings organised by the host institution.
Based on extensive international data a new antibiotic chemical consumption-based PEC (predicted environmental concentration) calculation and environmental risk prediction method has been developed for selected widely used antibiotics – ciprofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole and tetracycline; this new framework is used to critically assess heuristic PEC calculation methods in literature and to identify key areas for future research to improve the prediction of antibiotic and resistome release into natural watercourses. Laboratory-scale experiments were carried out both in continuous-flow and batch mode to assess antibiotic-exposure related factors - i.e. concentration levels, temporal variation, and wastewater as matrix – on the development of AMR in biofilms. Results show that these factors and the interactions thereof can influence to different extent AMR development and decay; statistical meta-models identified are demonstrated to efficiently predict the impacts of these factors in biofilms – a promising outcome to increase the predictive accuracy in ERA and science-informed policy making.
IDYEA disseminated results via public engagement, three international scientific conferences during the project period as well as regional early-career researcher events (GW4 AMR Alliance), local symposiums and poster presentation events at University of Bath.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The results of the project focusing on antimicrobial exposure-driven resistance development can inform regulatory bodies and policy makers. The project results provide significant contribution to the establishment of a new ERA framework for AMR by supplying a novel modelling background for predictions. The major knowledge gap targeted and covered by this research is crucial for developing reliable prediction tools focusing on AMR-related environmental and human health risk calculations and more realistic determination of WRRFs’ discharge limit values for emerging antimicrobial micropollutants. Moreover, results can give additional support for developing more efficient antibotic removal technologies at WRRFs and based on the precautionary principle, outcomes can be applicable for planning prevention strategies targeting the reasonable reduction and use of antibiotics. Considering the worldwide growing water scarcity and the consequently necessary increased attention to water quality protection, as well as the global threat of AMR development and spread, the results achieved may have significant contribution to the fulfilment of several SDGs (e.g. goals No. 3, 6, 11, 12, 14 and 15).

Figure 1. The main research concept of IDYEA