Project Page Views: [ 659 ]
| Project Metadata Element | Details |
| Project Title | Stopping Antibiotic Resistance Evolution in the Environment |
| Research Area | Water |
| Project Acronym | StARE |
| Principal Investigator or Lead Irish Partner | Fiona Walsh (IE) |
| Lead Institution or Organisation | Maynooth University (NUIM) |
| Lead Country | Ireland |
| Latitude, Longitude (of Lead Institution) | 53.38302, -6.60025 |
| Lead Funding Entity | Water JPI |
| Approximate Project Start Date | 15/12/2014 |
| Approximate Project Finishing Date | 15/12/2017 |
| Project Website (if any) | |
| Links to other Web-based resources | |
| Project Keywords | Antibiotic resistance bacteria and resistance genes (ARB&G); Urban wastewater treatment plants (UWTPs); Aquatic environments; Human health |
| Project Abstract | According to WHO, antibiotic resistance is a global threat for human health, driven by many interconnected factors, where water plays a key role. Urban wastewater treatment plants (UWTPs) are major sources of antibiotic residues, resistant bacteria (ARB) and resistance genes (ARG) into the environment and, therefore, represent crucial control points for efficient technological intervention. Though ARB&G are well characterized clinically, their occurrence in aquatic environments, relation to the regional use of antibiotics, or temporal/geographical variations are poorly understood. StARE will investigate a high number of European UWTPs to evaluate ARB&G abundance versus chemical contamination and regional backgrounds. Guidelines for ARB&G monitoring in water will be developed. The efficiency, impact and cost-effectiveness of advanced wastewater technologies will be evaluated, based on an innovative biological risk control strategy. The multidisciplinary StARE team is based on a previous European collaboration supported by the COST Action TD0803. The Action delegates identified the major gaps in knowledge and the measures necessary to limit the spread of ARB&G. The objectives of StARE will fill these gaps, contributing to preventing the contamination of the environment and the food chain and supporting the revision of EU water directives, aimed at maintaining ecosystem services and public health protection. The findings of this research will be communicated through different channels and using messages with different levels of complexity to the general public and stakeholders. We expect to publish several peer-reviewed publications on the different topics within this proposal. We will develop testing guidelines and collate the final results and information into a report. These will be of particular interest to national and EU water policy makers. The international nature of this research collaboration will ensure that Irish researchers are at the forefront of water research. This will enable us to apply for and leverage EU funding, e.g. Horizon 2020. |