Evaluating the effects of coal gasification slag on the fate of antibiotic resistant genes and mobile genetic elements during anaerobic digestion of swine manure

• Published in: Bioresource technology Vol. 271; pp. 24 - 29
• Main Authors: Liu, Jiayao, Gu, Jie, Wang, Xiaojuan, Lu, Chunya, Zhang, Ranran, Zhang, Xin, Zhang, Kaiyu, Qiu, Ling
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-01-2019
• Subjects: Anaerobic digestion; Animals; Antibiotic resistance gene; Bacteria - genetics; Bacterial community; Coal; Coal gasification slag; Drug Resistance, Microbial - genetics; Genes, Bacterial; Interspersed Repetitive Sequences; Manure - microbiology; Mobile genetic element; Solid Waste; Swine; Coal gasification slag; Anaerobic digestion; Bacterial community; Antibiotic resistance gene; Mobile genetic element
• ISSN: 0960-8524; 1873-2976
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2018.08.051

•Coal gasification slag can enhance the removal of ARGs and MGEs from swine manure.•Decreases in ARGs may be due to reductions in abundances of potential host bacteria.•Bacterial succession responsible for variations in the ARG profiles.•Coal gasification slag added at 10 g/L can reduce the risk of ARGs in swine manure.
Coal gasification slag (GS) is an industrial solid waste with a highly developed pore structure, which can be used in anaerobic digestion (AD) to remove antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) due to its structure, thereby utilizing this waste resource. This study evaluated the effects of three GS levels (0, 5, and 10 g/L) on the abundances of ARGs, mobile genetic elements, and the bacterial community. With GS added at 10 g/L, the removal rates for ARGs (dfrA7, sul2, tetW, ermF, and ermQ) were 24.81–90.48% after AD, and the removal rate for ISCR1 was 95.4%. In addition, 10 g/L GS was more effective at reducing the abundances of potential human pathogens. The variations in ARGs may have been affected by the succession of the microbial community. The results of this study demonstrate that supplementation with 10 g/L GS is more useful for reducing ARGs during AD.