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Occurrence and Abundance of Antibiotics and Resistance Genes in Rivers, Canal and near Drug Formulation Facilities – A Study in Pakistan

Overview of attention for article published in PLOS ONE, June 2013
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About this Attention Score

  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (73rd percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (67th percentile)

Mentioned by

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1 policy source
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3 X users

Citations

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194 Dimensions

Readers on

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285 Mendeley
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Title
Occurrence and Abundance of Antibiotics and Resistance Genes in Rivers, Canal and near Drug Formulation Facilities – A Study in Pakistan
Published in
PLOS ONE, June 2013
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0062712
Pubmed ID
Authors

Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Björn Berglund, Kashif Maqbool Khan, Per-Eric Lindgren, Jerker Fick

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance (AR) is a global phenomenon that has severe epidemiological ramifications world-wide. It has been suggested that antibiotics that have been discharged into the natural aquatic environments after usage or manufacture can promote the occurrence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARG). These environmental ARGs could serve as a reservoir and be horizontally transferred to human-associated bacteria and thus contribute to AR proliferation. The aim of this study was to investigate the anthropogenic load of antibiotics in Northern Pakistan and study the occurrence of ARGs in selected samples from this region. 19 sampling sites were selected; including six rivers, one dam, one canal, one sewage drain and four drug formulation facilities. Our results show that five of the rivers have antibiotic levels comparable to surface water measurements in unpolluted sites in Europe and the US. However, high levels of antibiotics could be detected in the downstream river in close vicinity of the 10 million city Lahore, 1100, 1700 and 2700 ng L(-1) for oxytetracycline, trimethoprim, and sulfamethoxazole respectively. Highest detected levels were at one of the drug formulation facilities, with the measured levels of 1100, 4100, 6200, 7300, 8000, 27,000, 28,000 and 49,000 ng L(-1) of erythromycin, lincomycin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, levofloxacin, oxytetracycline, trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole respectively. ARGs were also detected at the sites and the highest levels of ARGs detected, sulI and dfrA1, were directly associated with the antibiotics detected at the highest concentrations, sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim. Highest levels of both antibiotics and ARGs were seen at a drug formulation facility, within an industrial estate with a low number of local residents and no hospitals in the vicinity, which indicates that the levels of ARGs at this site were associated with the environmental levels of antibiotics.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 3 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 285 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Croatia 1 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
Unknown 283 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 41 14%
Student > Ph. D. Student 39 14%
Student > Bachelor 29 10%
Researcher 28 10%
Student > Doctoral Student 17 6%
Other 57 20%
Unknown 74 26%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 48 17%
Environmental Science 44 15%
Immunology and Microbiology 21 7%
Engineering 19 7%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 17 6%
Other 49 17%
Unknown 87 31%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 January 2018.
All research outputs
#6,018,045
of 22,713,403 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#71,870
of 193,923 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#50,714
of 195,446 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#1,552
of 4,784 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,713,403 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 73rd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 193,923 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.0. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 195,446 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 73% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 4,784 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 67% of its contemporaries.