Sources of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in a Rural River System.

The increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment is problematic due to the risk of horizontal gene transfer and development of antibiotic resistant pathogenic bacteria. Using a suite of monitoring tools, this study aimed to investigate the sources of ARGs in a rural river system in Nova Scotia, Canada. The monitoring program specifically focused on the relative contribution of ARGs from a single tertiary-level wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in comparison to contributions from the upgradient rural, sparsely developed, watershed.

Chemical and microbial characteristics of municipal drinking water supply systems in the Canadian Arctic.

Drinking water in the vast Arctic Canadian territory of Nunavut is sourced from surface water lakes or rivers and transferred to man-made or natural reservoirs. The raw water is at a minimum treated by chlorination and distributed to customers either by trucks delivering to a water storage tank inside buildings or through a piped distribution system. The objective of this study was to characterize the chemical and microbial drinking water quality from source to tap in three hamlets (Coral Harbour, Pond Inlet and Pangnirtung-each has a population of <2000) on trucked service, and in Iqaluit (population ~6700), which uses a combination of trucked and piped water conveyance.