Presence of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in sewage treatment plant

Raj Boopathy

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2017.02.093

Presence of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in sewage treatment plant

Bioresour Technol. 2017 Sep:240:144-148. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.02.093. Epub 2017 Feb 23.

Author

Raj Boopathy¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA 70310, USA. Electronic address: Ramaraj.Boopathy@nicholls.edu.

PMID: 28262305
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.02.093

Abstract

The presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes in rural sewage treatment plants are not well reported in the literature. The aim of the present study was to study the frequency occurrence of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in a rural sewage treatment plant. This study was conducted using raw sewage as well as treated sewage from a small town sewage treatment plant in rural southeast Louisiana of USA. Results showed the presence of MRSA consistently in both raw and treated sewage. The presence of mecA gene responsible for methicillin resistance was confirmed in the raw and treated sewage water samples.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistant; Free DNA; MRSA; Sewage treatment; Staphylococcus aureus; mecA gene.

MeSH terms

Louisiana
Methicillin
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus*
Microbial Sensitivity Tests
Sewage*
Staphylococcus aureus

Substances

Sewage
Methicillin