Waste recycling of antibiotic mycelial residue: The feasible harmless treatment and source control of antibiotic resistance

The antibiotic mycelial residue (AMR), a bio-waste, always generated with the antibiotics production by fermentation. It could lead to serious environmental risks after discharge due to the antibiotic residues. To date various harmless treatment processes for AMR have been investigated, while there is still lack of a systematic summary. In this review, typical treatments were comprehensively summarized and critically appraised according to the treatment cost, secondary pollution, operation difficulty and security. It was concluded that the aerobic composting was regarded as the most promising and feasible treatment process for AMR, because the huge dehydration cost and tedious post-treatment of digestate could be avoided while effectively reducing the antibiotic residues in AMR. However, the safety assessment of the AMR fertilizer is necessary, and a comprehensive assessment should include fertilizer quality, the fertilized soil quality, antibiotic residues and the antibiotic resistance risk. For the further research, the safety limit of antibiotic content in fertilizer was discussed as well as the source control for the spread of antibiotic resistance in fertilizer, which is of great significance to control the antibiotic resistance of AMR fertilizer. [Display omitted] •Harmless treatment processes of antibiotic mycelial residue (AMR) are appraised.•Aerobic composting of AMR is more feasible and promising.•The safety assessment for the AMR fertilizer are summarized.•Methods for the antibiotic limit in fertilizer is discussed.•The source control for antibiotic resistance of fertilizers is explored.