Antibacterial biocides in the water cycle – an integrated approach to assess and manage risks for antibiotic resistance development
Coordinator: D. G. Joakim Larsson
Project director: Prof. univ. dr. Mariana Carmen Chifiriuc
Project code: COFUND-AQUATIC POLLUTANTS-BIOCIDE
Contract number:243/2021
Project title: Antibacterial biocides in the water cycle – an integrated approach to assess and manage risks for antibiotic resistance development
Acronym: BIOCIDE
Term: 36 luni
Contract start date: 01/09/2021
Date of conclusion of the contract: 31/08/2024
Abstract
The objective of the project
Our aim is to determine how and to what extent antibacterial biocides contribute to the development and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria in different freshwater/marine ecosystems, and to inform and enable measures that ultimately protect human health and provide safe water resources for all.
More specifically, we have the following objectives:
#1. Prioritize antibacterial biocides to be investigated based on existing databases on sales, uses and detection in aquatic environments;
#2. Develop state-of-the art chemical analysis protocols for a range of antibacterial biocides, applicable to different sample types;
#3. Generate screening data for the presence and levels of antibacterial biocides from a set of different aquatic ecosystems in Europe and Africa;
#4. Generate a dose-response matrix for a large number of biocides and bacterial species in order to Predict No Effect Concentrations
(PNECs) for growth that will also be protective against AB resistance co-selection;
#5. Validate how PNECs for growth relate to PNECs for AB resistance selection by competition experiments in complex aquatic communities using a subset of biocides;
#6. Investigate the potency of selected biocides to induce horizontal transfer of AB resistance genes via conjugation and transformation;
#7. Investigate the incidence and mechanisms of AB resistance driven by metal-based antifouling agents used in international maritime traffic and marine aquaculture;
#8. Provide a first description of the predominant co- and cross-resistance mechanisms in bacterial isolates from aquatic ecosystems in Europe and Africa;
#9. Identify the genetic context and basis for resistance to several biocides using a functional metagenomics approach combined with exploration of public genomic data;
#10. Incorporate extensive data on PNECs and co-selection opportunities into the Bacmet database to make it useful for practical risk assessment and management;
#11. Perform a preliminary assessment of risks for biocides to promote AB resistance in aquatic environments based on generated exposure and effect data
#12. Produce an evaluation scheme in collaboration with regulatory authorities on how such risks formally could be incorporated both in the BPR and the WFD.
Partner 1: Roman Grabic, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Partner 2: Barth Smets, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Partner 3: Frank Schreiber, Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Germany
Partner 4: Nachiket Marathe, Institute of Marine Research, Norway
Partner 5: Mariana Carmen Chifiriuc, University of Bucharest, România
Partner 6: Mats Tysklind, Umeå University, Sweden
More details about the 2nd stage of the project can be accessed here.
The summary of the 2023 stage can be accessed here.
