Occurrence of pathogenic Mycobacteria avium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in outdoor decorative fountain water and the associated microbial community

• Published in: Journal of water and health 2024-09, Vol.22 (9), p.1663-1676
• Main Authors: Zhou, Qiaomei, Huang, Jingang, Wen, Shilin, Lou, Yucheng, Qiu, Shanshan, Li, Huanxuan, Zhou, Rongbing, Tang, Junhong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abundance; Aerosols; Bacteria; Decoration; Drinking water; Environmental Monitoring; Fountains; Health risk assessment; Health risks; Infectious diseases; Inhalation; Legionnaires disease; Metabolic pathways; Microbial activity; Microbiomes; Microbiota; Microorganisms; Mycobacterium avium - genetics; Mycobacterium avium - isolation & purification; Nucleotide sequence; Nutrient concentrations; Opportunist infection; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Pseudomonas aeruginosa - genetics; Pseudomonas aeruginosa - isolation & purification; Redundancy; Respiration; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - analysis; rRNA 16S; Taxonomy; Water Microbiology; Water temperature
• ISSN: 1477-8920; 1996-7829
• DOI: 10.2166/wh.2024.117

Outdoor decorative fountains usually attract residents to visit. However, opportunistic pathogens (OPs) can proliferate and grow in the stagnant fountain water, posing potential health risks to visitors due to the inhalation of spaying aerosols. In this study, the abundance of selected OPs and associated microbial communities in three large outdoor decorative fountain waters were investigated using quantitative PCR and 16S rRNA sequencing. The results indicated that and were consistently detected in all decorative fountain waters throughout the year. Redundancy analysis showed that OPs abundance was negatively correlated with water temperature but positively correlated with nutrient concentrations. The gene copy numbers of varied between 2.4 and 3.9 log (gene copies/mL), which were significantly lower than by several orders of magnitude, reaching 6.5-7.1 log (gene copies/mL) during winter. The analysis of taxonomic composition and prediction of functional potential also revealed pathogenic microorganisms and infectious disease metabolic pathways associated with microbial communities in different decorative fountain waters. This study provided a deeper understanding of the pathogenic conditions of the outdoor decorative fountain water, and future works should focus on accurately assessing the health risks posed by OPs in aerosols.