Microbial Pollution Tracking of Dairy Farm with a Combined PCR-DGGE and qPCR Approach

Animal husbandry is a traditional industry with regional characteristic in the Inner Mongolia of China. Recent years, animal breeding has been one of the main pollution sources in this area, followed by domestic sewage and industrial wastewater. The pollution of livestock farm feces may accelerate the development of pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes which pose health risks to humans and animals. In present research, culture-independent molecular ecological methods based on DGGE combined with qPCR were used to investigate the pollution to surrounding environment with different degrees of livestock farm. The cluster analysis of DGGE patterns showed that the livestock farm feces from point pollution source flowed with wastewater discharge has resulted in an impacted range of at least 3000 m, but it did not cause pollution to residential water delivered from upstream of sewage drain outlet. qPCR results revealed that 5 common pathogens (Escherichia coli, Enterococcus, Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella, and Salmonella) presented decreased trend as the sampled distance from point pollution source increased. Also, qPCR assays of 10 common antibiotic resistance genes (tetO, tetL, rpp, rpoB, sul2, sulA, floR, yidY, mphA, and ermC) which cause resistance to tetracycline, rifampicin, fluoroquinolone, quinolone, and erythromycin have been found in the environmental samples. This study clearly indicates the livestock farm discharge pollutants contaminated to the surrounding environment. Our data have provided important information to pollution control in the future.