Assessing the Presence of Antibiotic-Resistant Enterococcus in Reclaimed Water Used for Spray Irrigation

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorSapkota, Amy Ren_US
dc.contributor.advisorTurner, Paulen_US
dc.contributor.authorCarey, Stephanie Annen_US
dc.contributor.departmentMaryland Institute for Applied Environmental Healthen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2013-10-09T05:32:24Z
dc.date.available2013-10-09T05:32:24Z
dc.date.issued2013en_US
dc.description.abstractReclaiming wastewater is increasing in the US to combat dwindling freshwater supplies. This water potentially contains pathogenic bacteria; therefore, we evaluated the occurrence, concentration, and antimicrobial susceptibilities of Enterococcus spp.--an important opportunistic pathogen that remains a leading cause of nosocomial infections--in reclaimed water used for spray irrigation (SI). A total of 48 wastewater effluent and SI samples were collected in 2009 and 2010 from the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions of the US. Enterococci were isolated using membrane filtration, confirmed using biochemical tests and PCR, and tested for antimicrobial susceptibility using the Sensititre® dilution system. We detected total enterococci and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in 68% (27/40) and 8% (3/40), respectively, of all SI samples. VRE and vancomycin-intermediate enterococci (VIE) represented 2% (1/41) and 10% (4/41), respectively, of the total enterococci recovered from all SI sites. Our findings show that SI workers may be exposed to enterococci during spray irrigation activities.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/14576
dc.subject.pqcontrolledEnvironmental healthen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledEnvironmental scienceen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledMicrobiologyen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledantibiotic resistanceen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledEnterococcusen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledmultidrug resistanceen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledReclaimed wastewateren_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledspray irrigationen_US
dc.titleAssessing the Presence of Antibiotic-Resistant Enterococcus in Reclaimed Water Used for Spray Irrigationen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Carey_umd_0117N_14504.pdf
Size:
1.03 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

UMD Theses and Dissertations
Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health Theses and Dissertations