Team:IOANNINA/Sustainable

home project team wetlab society partners

Attributions Contribution 2021 Jamboree Results Collaborations Partnership Description Implementation Engineering HumanPractices Communication Sustainable Design Notebook Protocols Safety

Sustainable

Good health and Well Being

One of the major problems the world faces today regarding public health is the antibiotic resistant strains of pathogenic species of microorganisms. In recent years, the number of resistant bacteria has significantly increased due to the use of antibiotics in large quantities by the food industry. Those subsequently end up accumulating in the environment. Antibiotics in the environment cause selective pressure on the microbiome of an ecosystem that favors the resistant strains.Our team sought to contribute to the 3rd goal of the UN by deactivating the antibiotics before they spread to the environment and cause further selection of resistant microorganisms.

Primary long-term impact: reversal of the increased antimicrobial resistance. Secondary long-term impact: improvement of the water and food quality that derives from locations near facilities that use antibiotics extensively. Secondary long-term impact: Improvement in the water and food quality that derives from locations near facilities that use antibiotics extensively

Responsible Consumption and Production

Most currently used methods of manure management don’t ensure the complete and accurate removal of antibiotics from the end product. Additionally, they require specific conditions and sophisticated equipment.

This combined with the potential production of harmful derivatives of the antibiotic treatment underlines the need for the development of precise and efficient techniques for the removal of antibiotics.

Taking into account that biodegradation is a promising method of removing antibiotics from biological material we devised a mechanism that would improve the overall performance of the manure waste and would need sophisticated equipment to operate. Primary long-term impact: improvement of the antibiotic removal process. Secondary long-term impact: Minimization of manure treatment cost.

Life on Land

As the goal of this particular project is the control of antibiotics that end up in the terrestrial habitats, we refer to the targets of the SDG15. Human life depends on agriculture and all its benefits and that’s why antibiotics -as a means to an end- are used the last decades, so as to deal with bacterial infections in livestock production.

It is estimated that antibiotic consumption will rise by 67% by 2030 and in some BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) it will nearly double. All this comes with a price, as the wide spectrum of antibiotics that have been used and will continue to be used in the future, damage life on the land in numerous ways. For example, besides the risk of favoring microbial antibiotic resistance, antibiotic residues can be absorbed by plants, interfering with physiological processes, and causing potential ecotoxicological effects.

References

Finley, R. L., Collignon, P., Larsson, D. G., McEwen, S. A., Li, X.-Z., Gaze, W. H., Reid-Smith, R., Timinouni, M., Graham, D. W., & Topp, E. (2013). The scourge of antibiotic resistance: The important role of the environment. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 57(5), 704–710.
Gaballah, M. S., Guo, J., Sun, H., Aboagye, D., Sobhi, M., Muhmood, A., & Dong, R. (2021). A review targeting veterinary antibiotics removal from livestock manure management systems and future outlook. Bioresource Technology, 333, 125069.
Polianciuc, S. I., Gurzău, A. E., Kiss, B., Ştefan, M. G., & Loghin, F. (2020). Antibiotics in the environment: causes and consequences. Medicine and pharmacy reports, 93(3), 231–240.
Kraemer, S. A., Ramachandran, A., & Perron, G. G. (2019). Antibiotic Pollution in the Environment: From Microbial Ecology to Public Policy. Microorganisms, 7(6), 180.