Quantifying antibiotic resistance and antibiotic resistance selective chemicals in the River Almond Catchment Area - a baseline for risk assessment an

该项目属于生态系统挑战主题，对一个受多种污染源影响的河流集水区进行“从流域到海岸”的调查。它包括与抗生素耐药性(AR)相关的污染物形式的多个应激源的子主题。这些包括抗生素耐药细菌(ARB)、抗生素耐药基因(ARG)和抗生素耐药(AR)选择性化学品，如抗生素、重金属和其他新出现的令人担忧的化学品(CECs)。这些应激源影响抗生素耐药性的演变和传播，并作为环境污染物产生直接影响。这些直接的环境影响影响了河流集水区内的自然微生物种群、无脊椎动物和脊椎动物。影响范围从扰乱微生物群落、它们的进化、多样性和生态系统功能。此外，这些污染物可能对具有生理影响的高等生物体有毒，干扰发育和行为，并影响宿主微生物群(Kraemer等人，2019年)。抗生素耐药性的惊人上升现在被广泛接受为当今面临的最严重的公共卫生危机之一。这场危机的紧迫性在一定程度上是因为它并不新鲜。自1990年代初以来在国家和国际一级商定的大量反洗钱行动计划表明，这是一个众所周知的问题。尽管采取了许多成功的干预措施，特别是发达国家降低了人和动物的消费量，但抵抗力水平仍在上升。这被认为是一个多部门问题，通常被纳入“一个健康模式”，该模式将人类、动物和环境健康领域联系在一起。然而，直到最近，环境领域在很大程度上仍被忽视。2016年，世界卫生组织和2019年英国AMR战略都承认了环境对AR的重大贡献。因此，严重缺乏支持缓解或干预战略的数据。如果你考虑抗生素现在如何在我们卫生系统的几乎每一个部分发挥作用：简单的事情，如划痕可能杀死你，分娩可能杀死你，癌症治疗，大手术，糖尿病，在所有这些背景下，通常是抗生素的使用，“de Barro said.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/10/superbugs-a-far-greater-risk-than-covid-in-pacific-scientist-warns最近的研究表明，环境是耐药病原体传播和出现的重要因素(Singer等人，2016年)(Proia等人，2018年)(Graham等人，2010年)。综述了外部环境在抗生素耐药性形成和传播中的三个主要作用：(1)抗生素耐药(AR)病原菌的传播途径；(2)耐药性增强的选择；(3)新耐药性的出现。后两者是由环境AR选择性化学物质，如抗生素、重金属和其他新出现的关注化学物质(CECs)介导的。(J Bengtsson-Palme et al.，2018)杏仁河集水区具备AR传输和选择的所有要素“热点”。包括9个废水处理厂(WTTP)、众多污水溢流站(CSO)和化粪池、农场动物粪便、采矿排泄物和垃圾填埋场。该项目将提供关于杏仁河集水区抗生素耐药性(ARB和ARG)和AR选择性化学品水平和来源的基线数据。目的了解受多个污染源影响的河流中抗生素耐药性(ARB和ARG)的丰度及其与抗生素耐药性的相关性，为今后的风险评估和干预策略提供基线。

This project comes under the Challenged Ecosystems theme and undertakes a "catchment to coast" investigation of a river catchment which is impacted by multiple pollution sources. It includes the sub-theme of multiple stressors in the form of pollutants associated with antibiotic resistance (AR). These include antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB), antibiotic resistant genes (ARG) and antibiotic resistance (AR) selective chemicals such as antibiotics, heavy metals and other chemicals of emerging concern (CECs). These stressors affect the evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance and have a direct impact as environmental pollutants. These direct environmental effects impact natural microbial populations, invertebrates and vertebrates within the river catchment area. Effects range from disrupting microbial communities, their evolution, diversity and ecosystem functions. In addition, these pollutants may be toxic to higher organisms with physiological effects, interfering with development and behaviour, and effects on the host microbiomes (Kraemer et al., 2019).The project also includes the sub-theme of societal well-being. The alarming rise in resistance to antibiotics is now widely accepted as being one of the most serious public health crises faced today. Part of the urgency of this crisis is that it is not new. The large number of AMR action plans agreed at national and international level since the early 1990s indicate this is a well known problem. Despite many successful interventions, especially lowered consumption in human and animals in developed countries, the level of resistance is still rising. This is recognised as a multi-sectoral issue, and is often framed within "The One Health model", which links the human, animal, and environment health domains. However, the environmental domain has been till very recently largely ignored. The significant contribution of the environment to AR was acknowledged by the WHO in 2016 and by the UK AMR strategy in 2019. As a result there is a critical lack of data for supporting mitigation or intervention strategies. If you consider how antibiotics now play a role in virtually every part of our health system: simple things like scratches could kill you, childbirth could kill you, cancer treatment, major surgeries, diabetes, in the background in all of these, is often the use of antibiotics," De Barro said.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/10/superbugs-a-far-greater-risk-than-covid-in-pacific-scientist-warns Recent studies indicate that the environment is a significant contributor to the transmission and emergence of resistant pathogens (Singer et al., 2016) (Proia et al., 2018)(Graham et al., 2010). An overview of the three main roles of the external environment in antibiotic resistance development and dissemination has been proposed - (1) a transmission pathway for antibiotic resistant (AR) pathogens, (2) selection of enhancement of resistance and (3) emergence of novel resistance. The latter two are mediated by environmental AR selective chemicals such as antibiotics, heavy metals and other chemicals of emerging concern (CECs). (J Bengtsson-Palme et al., 2018) The River Almond catchment area has all the ingredients of an AR transmission and selection "hotspot". Including nine waste-water treatment plants (WTTP), numerous combined sewer overflows (CSO) and septic tanks, farm animal waste, mining discharge and landfill sites. This project will provide baseline data on the levels and sources of antibiotic resistance (ARB and ARG) and AR selective chemicals in the River Almond catchment area. AimTo determine the abundance of antibiotic resistance (ARB and ARG) and investigate the correlation with antibiotic resistance selective chemicals along a river impacted by multiple pollution sources in order to provide a baseline for future risk assessment and intervention strategies.