Effluent from Wastewater Treatment Plants: microbial water quality measured by 16SrRNA Amplicon Sequencing

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Abstract

Incoming microorganisms to wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are usually considered to be removed in the treatment process. Analyses of the effluent generally show a very high degree of reduction of pathogens supporting this assumption. However, standard techniques for detecting bacteria in the effluent, particularly pathogens, are based on culture-dependent methods, which may give erroneous result by underestimating the type and number of bacteria in the WWTP effluent. The aim of this study was to determine which bacteria are discharged from WWTP together with the effluent. Culture-independent 16SrRNA gene amplicon sequencing was applied for the identification and quantification of the microorganisms. In total 84 effluent samples from 14 full-scale Danish wastewater treatment plants were investigated over a period of 3 months. The microbial community composition was investigated by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing (V1 to V3 region) and MiDAS curated taxonomy (McIlroy et al. 2015). The microbial composition in the effluent from the WWTPs showed that among the 25 most abundant genera, there were many process-critical organisms for the treatment performance but also some genera which may contain pathogenic species. One of these was Arcobacter (Campylobacteraceae) which was found in up to 16% relative abundance. This indicates that Arcobacter, and perhaps other pathogenic genera, are not being removed efficiently in full-scale plants and may pose a potential health safety problem. Further investigations are needed to investigate in more detail the presence of specific pathogens.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
Publikationsdato30 jan. 2017
StatusUdgivet - 30 jan. 2017
Begivenhed11th Annual meeting in Danish Water Forum - KU Life, Fredriksberg, Danmark
Varighed: 30 jan. 201730 jan. 2017
Konferencens nummer: 11

Konference

Konference11th Annual meeting in Danish Water Forum
Nummer11
LokationKU Life
Land/OmrådeDanmark
ByFredriksberg
Periode30/01/201730/01/2017

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