In recent years, air pollution events have occurred frequently in China during the winter. Most studies have focused on the physical and chemical composition of polluted air. Some studies have examined the bacterial bioaerosols both indoors and outdoors. But few studies have focused on the relationship between air pollution and bacteria, especially pathogenic bacteria. Airborne PM samples with different diameters and different air quality index values were collected in Hangzhou, China from December 2014 to January 2015. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA was used to categorize the airborne bacteria. Based on the NCBI database, the “Human Pathogen Database” was established, which is related to human health. Among all the PM samples, the diversity and concentration of total bacteria were lowest in the moderately or heavily polluted air. However, in the PM2.5 and PM10 samples, the relative abundances of pathogenic bacteria were highest in the heavily and moderately polluted air respectively. Considering the PM samples with different particle sizes, the diversities of total bacteria and the proportion of pathogenic bacteria in the PM10 samples were different from those in the PM2.5 and TSP samples. The composition of PM samples with different sizes range may be responsible for the variances. The relative humidity, carbon monoxide and ozone concentrations were the main factors, which affected the diversity of total bacteria and the proportion of pathogenic bacteria. Among the different environmental samples, the compositions of the total bacteria were very similar in all the airborne PM samples, but different from those in the water, surface soil, and ground dust samples. Which may be attributed to that the long-distance transport of the airflow may influence the composition of the airborne bacteria. This study of the pathogenic bacteria in airborne PM samples can provide a reference for environmental and public health researchers.

This study analyzed fresh feces from three common bird species that live in urban environments and interact with human communities. Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) encoding resistance to three major classes of antibiotics (i.e., tetracyclines, β-lactams, and sulfonamides) and the mobile genetic element integrase gene (intI1) were abundant (up to 10⁹, 10⁸, 10⁹, and 10¹⁰ copies/g dry feces for tetW, blaTEM, sul1, and intI1, respectively), with relative concentrations surprisingly comparable to that in poultry and livestock that are occasionally fed antibiotics. Biomarkers for opportunistic pathogens were also abundant (up to 10⁷ copies/g dry feces) and the dominant isolates (i.e., Enterococcus spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) harbored both ARGs and virulence genes. ARGs in bird feces followed first-order attenuation with half-lives ranging from 1.3 to 11.1 days in impacted soil. Although residual antibiotics were detected in the feces, no significant correlation was observed between fecal antibiotic concentrations and ARG relative abundance. Thus, other unaccounted factors likely contributed selective pressure for ARG maintenance. These findings highlight the contribution of wild urban bird feces to the maintenance and dissemination of ARGs, and the associated health risks.

Microplastics pollution in marine environments is concerning. Microplastics persist and accumulate in various sections of the ocean where they present opportunity for micropollutant accumulation and microbial colonisation. Even though biofilm formation on plastics was first reported in the 1970's, it is only in recent years were plastic associated biofilms have gained research attention. Plastic surfaces pose a problem as they are a niche ready for colonisation by diverse biofilm assemblages, composed of specific bacterial communities and putative pathogens prone to acquiring ARGs and resistance in the biofilm. However, the nature of antibiotic resistance on aquatic plastic debris is not yet fully understood and remains a concern. Given the inevitable increase of plastic production and waste generation, microplastics released into the environment may prove to be problematic. This review explores microplastic waste in the ocean and possible concerns that may arise from the presence of microplastics in conjunction with favourable conditions for the development and dispersal of antibiotic resistance in the ocean and food web.

Plastics accumulate in the environment and the Mediterranean Sea is one of the most polluted sea in the world. The plastic surface is rapidly colonized by microorganisms, forming the plastisphere. Our unique sampling supplied 107 plastic pieces from 22 geographical sites from four aquatic ecosystems (river, estuary, harbor and inshore) in the south of France in order to better understand the parameters which influence biofilm composition. In parallel, 48 enrichment cultures were performed to investigate the presence of plastic degrading-bacteria in the plastisphere. In this context, we showed that the most important drivers of microbial community structure were the sampling site followed by the polymer chemical composition. The study of pathogenic genus distribution highlighted that only 11% of our plastic samples contained higher proportions of Vibrio compared to the natural environment. Finally, results of the enrichment cultures showed a selection of hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms suggesting their potential role in the plastic degradation.

To examine the influence of anthropogenic activities on the marine ecosystem around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a study was conducted to investigate the abundance of heterotrophic, indicator and pathogenic bacteria during the monsoon season. We noticed the higher abundance of heterotrophic, indicator (Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis) and pathogenic bacterial counts (Aeromonas hydrophila, Enterobacter aerogens, Escherichia coli strain O157:H7, Shigella dysenteriae and Vibrio parahaemolyticus) near the 10ᵒ channel, which is the principal route to reach Andaman mainland. Most of the stations are offshore (chosen to cover shipping tracks) at a distance ranging from 41 to 266 km from the coast. The nearest station to the coast was at 21 km away. Apart from those mentioned above, several other pathogenic bacteria were also detected such as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Salmonella paratyphi, Vibrio cholera and Vibrio vulnificus but they are sparsely detected at few stations only.

The most important oyster farming area in Europe is in a close proximity of two medium size merchant ports. Cargo ships deballast in this area before loading, releasing unwanted or noxious marine species. During a sampling campaign aboard these arriving ships, we found in some ballast water samples a huge number of potentially toxic dinoflagellates and some potentially pathogenic bacteria. A model was applied to find the potential geographical spread of the discharged ballast water. This model predicts the water to reach highly vulnerable shellfish farmed areas in six to eight days.

Analyses of thermotolerant coliform and heterotrophic bacteria as well as Escherichia coli and Vibrio species were carried out on plastic samples and in the surrounding waters of Guanabara Bay to evaluate plastic debris as vehicles of bacterial dispersal. Chemical characterizations of plastics were performed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Plastic debris with high coliform contents were found, while their respective water samples had only low titers. No correlations were observed, however, between the amounts of bacteria and the chemical compositions of the plastic debris. Forty-four bacterial strains were PCR-confirmed as E. coli pathotypes, and 59 strains of Vibrio spp. (with 12 being identified as Vibrio cholerae [6], Vibrio vulnificus [5], and Vibrio mimicus [1]). These findings suggest these plastics can function as a substrate for bacterial biofilms (including pathogens). These debris, in turn, can be dispersed in aquatic environments not otherwise showing recent fecal bacterial contamination.

The recurrent emergence of infections outbreaks associated with shellfish consumption is an important health problem, which results in substantial economic losses to the seafood industry. Even after depuration, shellfish is still involved in outbreaks caused by pathogenic bacteria, which increases the demand for new efficient strategies to control the shellfish infection transmission. Phage therapy during the shellfish depuration is a promising approach, but its success depends on a detailed understanding of the dynamics of bacterial communities in the harvesting waters. This study intends to evaluate the seasonal dynamics of the overall bacterial communities, disease-causing bacterial populations and bacterial sanitary quality indicators in two authorized harvesting-zones at Ria de Aveiro.During the hot season, the total bacterial community presented high complexity and new prevalent populations of the main shellfish pathogenic bacteria emerged. These results indicate that the spring/summer season is a critical period during which phage therapy should be applied.

In order to examine the health of the coastal waters off Visakhapatnam in terms of prevalence and abundance of heterotrophic (H), indicator and pathogenic (P) bacterial counts (BC) and influence of physical processes on them, time-series observations were conducted during January (winter), March (spring), July (summer) and October (post-monsoon). We noticed the impact of physical forces on substantial variations in abundance and distribution of the HBC, total coliforms, Enterococcus faecalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the study region. Based on our results Escherichia coli and other PBC were not much influenced by the physical conditions. It has been noticed that the perennial existence of the high abundance of IBC and PBC above the standard limits during the entire study period leading to an alarming situation in the coastal waters off Visakhapatnam.

Changing climatic conditions have influenced the monsoon pattern in recent years. Variations in bacterial population in one such tropical environment were observed everyday over two years and point out intra and inter annual changes driven by the intensity of rainfall. Vibrio spp. were abundant during the monsoon and so were faecal coliforms. Vibrio alginolyticus were negatively influenced by nitrate, whereas, silicate and rainfall positively influenced Vibrio parahaemolyticus numbers. It is also known that pathogenic bacteria are associated with the plankton. Changes in the abundance of plankton, which are governed mainly by environmental changes, could be responsible for variation in pathogenic bacterial abundance during monsoon, other than the land runoff due to precipitation and influx of fresh water.