Coastal urbanization influences human pathogens and microdebris contamination in seafood

Seafood is one of the leading imported products implicated in foodborne
outbreaks worldwide. Coastal marine environments are being increasingly
subjected to reduced water quality from urbanization and leading to
contamination of important fishery species. Given the importance of
seafood exchanged as a global protein source, it is imperative to maintain
seafood safety worldwide. To illustrate the potential health risks
associated with urbanization in a coastal environment, we use
next-generation high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the 16S ribosomal
RNA gene combined with infrared spectroscopy to characterize and quantify
a vast range of potential human bacterial pathogens and microdebris
contaminants in seawater, sediment and an important oyster fishery along
the Mergui Archipelago in Myanmar. Through the quantification of
>1.25 million high-quality bacterial operational taxonomic unit
(OTU) reads, we detected 5,459 potential human bacterial pathogens
belonging to 87 species that are commonly associated with gut microbiota
and an indication of terrestrial runoff of human and agricultural waste.
Oyster tissues contained 51% of all sequenced bacterial pathogens that are
considered to be both detrimental and of emerging concern to human health.
Using infrared spectroscopy, we examined a total of 1,225 individual
microdebris particles, from which we detected 78 different types of
contaminant materials. The predominant microdebris contaminants recovered
from oyster tissues included polymers (48%), followed by non-native
minerals (20%), oils (14%) and milk supplement powders (14%). Emerging
technologies provide novel insights into the impacts of coastal
development on food security and risks to human and environmental health.

海产品是全球范围内与食源性暴发事件相关的主要进口食品之一。沿海海洋环境正日益受到城市化导致的水质下降影响，进而对重要渔业物种造成污染。鉴于海产品作为全球蛋白质来源的重要贸易品类，维持全球海产品安全至关重要。为阐明沿海城市化进程所关联的潜在健康风险，本研究采用下一代16S核糖体RNA（16S ribosomal RNA）基因高通量扩增子测序技术结合红外光谱法，对缅甸丹老群岛沿岸海域、沉积物及重要牡蛎渔业产区的海水、沉积物与牡蛎样本中的大量潜在人类细菌性致病菌及微碎屑污染物进行表征与定量分析。通过对超过125万条高质量细菌操作分类单元（OTU）读段进行定量分析，本研究共检测到5459株潜在人类细菌性致病菌，隶属于87个物种。这些致病菌通常与人体肠道菌群相关，同时也提示存在人类及农业废弃物的地表径流污染。牡蛎组织中携带了所有测序致病菌的51%，这些致病菌均被认为对人体健康具有危害，且属于新出现的健康关注点。通过红外光谱法，本研究共检测了1225个独立的微碎屑颗粒，从中识别出78种不同类型的污染物质。从牡蛎组织中回收的主要微碎屑污染物包括聚合物（48%），其次是非本土矿物（20%）、油脂（14%）以及乳补充剂粉末（14%）。新兴技术为探究沿海开发对粮食安全的影响以及人类与环境健康风险提供了全新的视角。