PIRE- Halting Environmental Antimicrobial Resistance Dissemination (HEARD)

The overarching objective of this project is to survey the metagenomes of across an international transect of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), with emphasis on profiling antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Specific objectives include determining the fate of different ARGs through various stages of wastewater treatment and tracking evidence of their dissemination from effluents to receiving environments, such as rivers and streams. Complementary laboratory-based projects examine the fate of ARGs in recycled water, drinking water, and in pilot-scale water/wastewater treatment and distribution systems. The samples here were collected as part of an international collaboration supported by the National Science Foundation Partnership in International Research and Education program (PIRE), Halting Environmental Antimicrobial Resistance Dissemination (HEARD), through which researchers conducted collaborative site visits to collect and process the samples in a uniform manner.