Keywords:
Bacterial diversity, Municipal wastewater, Ganges River, Antibiotics-resistant bacteria, 16S rRNA sequencing
The wastewater treatment plant is the silent reservoir of the broad spectrum of microbial populations, including pathogenic ones, which have the potential to cause contamination and pose risks to public and environmental health. In this work, we estimated the actual bacterial load present in the pre and post-treated wastewater samples from WWTPs of Prayagraj region of India. Furthermore, we also studied the distribution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) from WWTPs to Ganges river samples. Data indicated that the majority of the isolates were identified as Bacillus spp. (42.4%) followed by Gammaproteobacteria (27%) which included members of the genera Aeromonas, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Enterobacter. Most bacterial isolates regardless of the site of sampling resulted resistance to cefotaxime and ampicillin (50% and 41.6%) respectively. This study concluded that the municipal wastewater offers an atmosphere conducive to bacteria with antibiotic resistance that can harbor resistant bacteria and their resistant genes to receiving water sections with potential public health danger.
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