Transport of antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli in a public rural karst water supply

The goal of this study was to determine the conditions promoting the transport of antibiotic-resistant faecal bacteria, in a rural karst system providing drinking water (Northwest France). For this purpose, the resistance of the Escherichia coli population (436 isolates) to 17 antibiotics was investigated by analysing water samples from four representative interconnected sites: a creek, a swallow hole, a spring, and a well. The samples were collected during four contrasting hydrologic and grazing periods. The transport of resistant E. coli from the creek to the well appeared to be dominated by run-off and leaching phenomena. Less than 7% of the E. coli isolated during a wet period without grazing or during a dry period with grazing were antibiotic-resistant, whereas, during rainfall events with grazing, between 30% and 55% of the E. coli detected were resistant; 10–23% of these isolates were resistant to two or three antibiotics. The resistance most often found was to either chloramphenicol or tetracycline. To better describe the dynamics of the antibiotic-resistant population of E. coli entering the karst aquifer, the swallow hole was monitored over a 24-h period during a rainfall event (90 isolates). The antibiotic resistance of E. coli isolates and the occurrence of class 1 integrons, genetic elements involved multi-resistance, were determined. The origin of this E. coli population was also investigated. This monitoring demonstrated that multi-antibiotic-resistant E. coli, representing 23% of the total population, infiltrated the karst aquifer at the peak of a rainfall event, with some isolates being resistant to up to eight antibiotics. No intI1 gene was detected. The search for the origin of the resistant E. coli isolated during this rainfall event demonstrated that they were of both animal and human origin. This work demonstrates that drinking water resources taken from the groundwater in a rural karst terrain is vulnerable to contamination by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.