Mitigation of antibiotic resistance: the efficiency of a hybrid subsurface flow constructed wetland in the removal of resistant bacteria in wastewater.

This research investigates the effectiveness of a lab-scale hybrid subsurface flow constructed wetland (HSSFCW) for removing wastewater contaminants, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), genes (ARGs) and antibiotics. The results suggested that HSSFCW demonstrated a high removal efficiency for COD (89%) and BOD (88.9%), while lower efficiencies were observed for salts, TDS, EC, and TKN. Further, various bacteria such as Enterobacter cloacae, Serratia liquefaciens and Serratia odorifera were detected in the plant rhizosphere, while Acinetobacter baumanii and Staphylococcus spp. were identified as biofilm formers on the wetland media. The mean removal efficiency of 70.44, 65.99, 70.66 and 51.49% was observed for total heterotrophic bacteria; Cefixime (Cef)-, Ciprofloxacin (Cip)-, and Linezolid (Lzd)-resistant bacteria. Upon chlorination of effluent samples, Cef-, Cip- and Lzd-resistant bacteria were effectively inactivated at 30, 15 and 7.5 mg Cl₂ min/L, respectively. The wetland achieved a removal efficiency of 83.85% for Cip and 100% for Lzd at week 12 with p = 0.040 and p < 0.001, respectively. Further, a log reduction of 0.66 for 16S, 0.82 for blaTEM, 0.61 for blaCTX, and 0.48 for blaOXA was observed. Thus, HSSFCW was observed to be efficient in removing organic contaminants, ARBs, ARGs and antibiotics from domestic wastewater and can be upgraded under natural environments.