Antibiotics are used in animal livestock production for therapeutic treatment of disease and at subtherapeutic levels for growth promotion and improvement of feed efficiency. It is estimated that approximately 75% of antibiotics are not absorbed by animals and are excreted in waste. Antibiotic resistance selection occurs among gastrointestinal bacteria, which are also excreted in manure and stored in waste holding systems. Land application of animal waste is a common disposal method used in the United States and is a means for environmental entry of both antibiotics and genetic resistance determinants. Concerns for bacterial resistance gene selection and dissemination of resistance genes have prompted interest about the concentrations and biological activity of drug residues and break-down metabolites, and their fate and transport. Fecal bacteria can survive for weeks to months in the environment, depending on species and temperature, however, genetic elements can persist regardless of cell viability. Phylogenetic analyses indicate antibiotic resistance genes have evolved, although some genes have been maintained in bacteria before the modern antibiotic era. Quantitative measurements of drug residues and levels of resistance genes are needed, in addition to understanding the environmental mechanisms of genetic selection, gene acquisition, and the spatiotemporal dynamics of these resistance genes and their bacterial hosts. This review article discusses an accumulation of findings that address aspects of the fate, transport, and persistence of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes in natural environments, with emphasis on mechanisms pertaining to soil environments following land application of animal waste effluent.

https://crashrecovery.org/zika/02-14MAR2008-Antibiotic-Resistance-Genes-J.Environ.Qual.May-June2009.pdf

Fate and transport of antibiotic residues and antibiotic resistance genes following land application of manure waste.

Manual of Standards for Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines

Publisher Summary This chapter highlights how the current understanding of the mechanisms and factors influencing virus adsorption can be used to interpret and control virus behavior in the environment. An understanding of factors controlling the interaction has already led to new and improved methods for the concentration of viruses from water, and their isolation from the environment. It is evident that not all viruses behave alike toward a solid under identical conditions. Under most natural conditions viruses with a low isoelectric point appear to be more poorly adsorbed to most solid surfaces. This must be taken into consideration when evaluating concentration or treatment systems which involve adsorption. This phenomenon is also important in determining the transport of viruses in the environment. Certain enteric viruses appear to adsorb less readily to soils and aquatic sediments than others. Thus their potential transport to groundwater may be greater and they may be less likely to settle in surface waters. To take into consideration these differences in virus behavior, it is perhaps best to use viruses with widely varying isoelectric points or marked differences in hydrophobicity to evaluate the extremes in virus interaction with a given surface which could occur.

Applied and Theoretical Aspects of Virus Adsorption to Surfaces

Many of the devastating pandemics and outbreaks of the 20th and 21st centuries have involved enveloped viruses, including influenza, HIV, SARS, MERS, and Ebola. However, little is known about the presence and fate of enveloped viruses in municipal wastewater. Here, we compared the survival and partitioning behavior of two model enveloped viruses (MHV and ϕ6) and two nonenveloped bacteriophages (MS2 and T3) in raw wastewater samples. We showed that MHV and ϕ6 remained infective on the time scale of days. Up to 26% of the two enveloped viruses adsorbed to the solid fraction of wastewater compared to 6% of the two nonenveloped viruses. Based on this partitioning behavior, we assessed and optimized methods for recovering enveloped viruses from wastewater. Our optimized ultrafiltration method resulted in mean recoveries (±SD) of 25.1% (±3.6%) and 18.2% (±9.5%) for the enveloped MHV and ϕ6, respectively, and mean recoveries of 55.6% (±16.7%) and 85.5% (±24.5%) for the nonenveloped MS2 and T3, respectively. A ma...

Survivability, Partitioning, and Recovery of Enveloped Viruses in Untreated Municipal Wastewater

Immunoglobulin M antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (MAC-ELISA) is a rapid and versatile diagnostic method that readily permits the combination of multiple assays. Test consolidation is especially important for arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) which belong to at least three virus families: the Togaviridae, Flaviviridae, and Bunyaviridae. Using prototype viruses from each of these families and a panel of well-characterized human sera, we have evaluated and standardized a combined MAC-ELISA capable of identifying virus infections caused by members of each virus family. Furthermore, by grouping antigens geographically and utilizing known serological cross-reactivities, we have reduced the number of antigens necessary for testing, while maintaining adequate detection sensitivity. We have determined that a 1:400 serum dilution is most appropriate for screening antiviral antibody, using a positive-to-negative ratio of ≥2.0 as a positive cutoff value. With a blind-coded human serum panel, this combined MAC-ELISA was shown to have test sensitivity and specificity that correlated well with those of other serological techniques.

Standardization of Immunoglobulin M Capture Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays for Routine Diagnosis of Arboviral Infections

Data presented demonstrate the relatively high multiplicity of solids-associated virus in field samples, i.e., wastewater, sludge, and soils. Influent, effluent, and chlorinated effluent samples showed 16.1 to 100% of the total virus demonstrated in samples to be solids associated. Three techniques for freeing solids-associated virus are described and compared. Using sonication of solids and polyethylene glycol concentration, virus was demonstrated in fully digested sludge (60 days at 34 C), sand at the site of a sewer leak, and dried sludge cake and mud 900 m downstream from a sewage disposal site. These data emphasize the inadequacy of virus concentration techniques that do not include the processing of solids. In situ elution failed to free solids-associated virus.

Demonstration of solids-associated virus in wastewater and sludge.

The survival of virus present in secondary effluents discharged into a cypress dome was studied. Isolations were made from concentrates of water drawn from 10-foot (304.80 cm) deep wells. Data presented show vertical and lateral virus movement as well as survival within the dome for 28 days during a period of heavy rains when no effluent was being applied. Due to the inefficiency of virus concentration procedures, it is proposed that much of the virus present was probably not demonstrated. A rapid, relatively inexpensive concentration technique for sewage influents and effluents is discussed.

https://aem.asm.org/content/aem/29/6/751.full.pdf

Demonstration of virus in groundwater after effluent discharge onto soil.

SUMMARYWe have reviewed 64 cases of documented central nervous system mumps which were referred to the Epidemiology Research Center for laboratory diagnosis between 1963 and 1968. Fifty-five were classified as mumps viral meningitis and 9 as meningoencephalitis. The average time interval between onset of parotitis and the development of CNS symptoms was 2.7 days, and mumps viral complement-fixing antibodies reached a geometric mean peak level of 1:96 between two and three weeks after onset of mumps illness. Follow-up neurological, psychometric, and audiometric performance tests on 19 patients revealed no significant differences between the patients and a group of matched controls, although one of those with meningoencephalitis had suggestive evidence of minimal brain damage.

Central nervous system mumps. A review of 64 cases

Wildlife species from 38 of Florida's 67 counties were surveyed over a 10 year period for the presence of antibody to the five major arboviruses circulating in the state. The routine screening of 7891 sera from wild birds and mammals via the hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) test with selected reactors subjected to serum neutralization testing has 1) provided information regarding geographic distribution and seasonality of circulation of these viruses 2) identified enzootic foci of infection and those species of wildlife most commonly infected and 3) documented the potential value of certain wild mammals as indicators of St. Louis Encephalitis and Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus activity prior to the detection of human cases. Limited studies of Tamiami and Tensaw virus on sera from mammals collected for other purposes provided additional baseline information on the activity of these viruses in Florida mammals. Isolations of eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus were made from the heart of a logg...

https://bioone.org/journals/Journal-of-Wildlife-Diseases/volume-11/issue-3/0090-3558-11.3.348/ARBOVIRUS-SURVEILLANCE-IN-FLORIDA-WILD-VERTEBRATE-STUDIES-1965-1974/10.7589/0090-3558-11.3.348.pdf

Arbovirus surveillance in Florida: wild vertebrate studies 1965-1974.

This communication presents a summary of all virus isolations made at the Epidemiology Research Center from specimens gathered throughout the Tampa Bay area of Florida from 1963 to 1970. A total of 697 isolations was made. Seven different virus groups were represented with three arbovirus groups accounting for 608 (87%) of all isolates: California encephalitis virus group, 313 isolates (44.9%), 220 Keystone and 93 Trivittatus; Bunyamwera group, 179 isolates (25.6%), all Tensaw; and Group A, 115 isolates (16.5%), 94 Eastern equine encephalitis, and 21 Western equine encephalitis. Minimal infection ratios and isolation trends are discussed.

Arthur L. Lewis

Papers

Demonstration of solids-associated virus in wastewater and sludge.

Demonstration of virus in groundwater after effluent discharge onto soil.

Central nervous system mumps. A review of 64 cases

Arbovirus surveillance in Florida: wild vertebrate studies 1965-1974.

Agents encountered during arboviral ecological studies: Tampa Bay area, Florida, 1963, to 1970.