Monitoring the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria and their antibiotic resistant genes in ballast water around the world

Antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and their antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) are found widely in aquatic environments and ships' ballast water is a potential vector for the spread of ARB and ARGs. Ballast water is assessed to monitor the presence of ARB and ARGs using heterotrophic plate count and qPCR approaches. In addition, ballast water viral communities are investigated at the genomic level to understand the abundance and diversity of ARGs mediated by bacteriophage transduction.

Associated Project: 
IRT2: Methods for monitoring and diagnosis of environmental pollution