Effect of ciprofloxacin antibiotic on the partial-nitritation process and bacterial community structure of a submerged biofilter

• The study was done in 4 bench-scale partial-nitrification submerged bed bioreactors.
• Changes in performance were studied under different antibiotic concentrations.
• We focused the study on the influence of ciprofloxacin on the microbial population.
• Ciprofloxacin effect in partial-nitritation was tested by multivariate analysis.

A partial-nitritation bench-scale submerged biofilter was used for the treatment of synthetic wastewater containing a high concentration of ammonium in order to study the influence of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin on the partial-nitritation process and biodiversity of the bacterial community structure. The influence of ciprofloxacin was evaluated in four partial-nitritation bioreactors working in parallel, which received sterile synthetic wastewater amended with 350 ng/L of ciprofloxacin (Experiment 1), synthetic wastewater without ciprofloxacin (Experiment 2), synthetic wastewater amended with 100 ng/L of ciprofloxacin (Experiment 3) and synthetic wastewater amended with 350 ng/L of ciprofloxacin (Experiment 4). The concentration of 100 ng/L of antibiotics demonstrated that the partial-nitritation process, microbial biomass and bacterial structure generated by tag-pyrosequencing adapted progressively to the conditions in the bioreactor. However, high concentrations of ciprofloxacin (350 ng/L) induced a decay of the partial-nitritation process, while the total microbial biomass was increased. Within the same experiment, the bacterial community experienced sequential shifts with a clear reduction of the ammonium oxidation bacteria (AOB) and an evident increase of Commamonas sp., which have been previously reported to be ciprofloxacin-resistant. Our study suggests the need for careful monitoring of the concentration of antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin in partial-nitritation bioreactors, in order to choose and maintain the most appropriate conditions for the proper operation of the system.