Description
The overuse and/or misuse of antibiotics leads to an increased level of antimicrobial resistance in the environment. The project objective is to develop a state-of-the-art methodological guide to monitor antibiotic residues and antibiotic resistant microorganisms in the environment. The proposed guide will help design and implement strategies for a quality management of surface waters and groundwater. The project will focus on: Develop a standardized methodological guide for monitoring antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance in the environment. Establish a research infrastructure for future studies. Provide hands-on training for the methods proposed. Transfer of knowledge between the partners. The project will target environmental health inspectors, environmental policy makers, specialists from research and academia and also the general public. The donor partner, will contribute to research activities, to writing the methodological guide and to knowledge transfer to Romanian researchers. The multidisciplinary group formed will plan and implement the project activities, develop methods to be included in the methodological guide, write scientific reports.
Summary of project results
Antimicrobial agents – such as antibiotics – have dramatically reduced the number of deaths from infectious diseases during the 70 years since their introduction. With the increasing industrial production of antibotics and their human and veterinary use these substances have started entering the environment due to incomplete metabolisation in the organisms, incomplete elimination during sewage treatment, land application of animal waste, improper disposal of unused or expired drugs. Thus, because antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance genes (ARG) have been detected in various compartments of the aquatic environment (e.g. wastewaters, surface and groundwater, drinking water) and in the soil and sediments and due to their effects, they are getting attention as new classes of pollutants in the environment. This project is the first of its kind in Romania. Project main objective was to raise awareness in the matter of environmental pollution with antibiotics and the antimicrobial resistance phenomenon and to develop a state-of-the-art methodological guide for monitorization of antibiotic residues and resistant microorganisms in the environment in order to design and implement efficient strategies for an enhanced quality management of surface waters and groundwater. Objectives: 1. To raise awareness that antibiotics and antimicrobial resistant microorganisms are considered novel classes of pollutants in the environment. 2. To propose a methodological guide for standardized monitoring of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in the environment. 3. To increase the monitoring capacity by investing in infrastructure and by performing personnel trainings. Major outcomes: 1. Several trainings and public conferences in which the methods developed and tested in the EnviroAMR project were presented to stakeholders. 2. Publication of the methodological guide entitled ”Methodological guide for monitoring antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in the environment”, in both Romanian and English. 3. The development of the first bioinformatics center in Romania dedicated to processing large volumes of data resulted from microbial metagenomic analyses for monitoring environmental health. Formed from dedicated server with high computational capacity and workstations. An interdisciplinary center that will stimulate interdisciplinary communication and research of various aspects of microbiology, microbial ecology and beyond.
Summary of bilateral results
The EnviroAMR partnership was built on cooperation with both entitites from Romania and also with the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, the Microbial Diversity Laboratory led by Prof. Knut Rudi, as the partner from the Donor State. The collaboration with the partner from the Donor State was very good during the project implementation, existing a tight relationship with the Project Promoter’s team. The Norwegian Partner was involved in Next Generation Sequencing analysis of ARGs and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) mechanisms – the metagenomic level as activity leader, validation of results, integration of specific methods and protocols into the methodological guide. PhD. Cecilia Chiriac (ICB Cluj-Napoca) was trained for 6 months in the Norwegian partner's lab for the use of bioinformatics programs, programming language specific for assembling and analyzing sequences obtained by the metagenomic approach. PhD. Edina Szekeres (ICB Cluj-Napoca) has been trained for 3 months in the Norwegian partner's lab for the use of molecular biology techniques for the identification and characterization of antibiotic-resistant microbial strains and resistance genes together with their quantification.