keynote speech

• Armstrong Omoregie (University of Technology Sarawak)

Environmental distribution of biofilm forming antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli associated with plastic surface materials

• Md.Tanvir Rahman (Bangladesh AGricultural University)

Plastic pollution is now an emerging issue worldwide and the number of plastic debris is rapidly increasing day by day in this decades. The surface of plastic is a rich source of biofilm-forming microorganisms that can pose a risk to human health. Studies showed that Escherichia coli is resistant to numerous classes of antibiotics, however, the prevalence of the bacterium on the environmental plastic surface is still unknown. The current study aimed at identifying biofilm- forming E. coli from the plastic surface collected from various environmental origins and distributing the antibiotic-resistant pattern. A total of 90 plastic samples were collected from wastewater and open surface environments of Mymensingh Medical College, Bangladesh Agricultural University, and BCIC industrial areas of Mymensingh. Among these 65 samples were found to be positive for the presence of E. coli. The plastic samples collected from drainage sources displayed the highest E. coli prevalence. By targeting the mal B gene of the cultured samples, 36 E. coli isolates were positive out of 65, and the prevalence rate was 55.38%. There was a considerable variation in terms of the antibiotic-resistant pattern of the isolates. Randomly, 29 isolates were subjected to antibiogram study. All of the isolates were resistant to imipenam and ceftazidime, 79.40% were resistant to ampicillin and 44.82% resistant to gentamicin. The beta-lactamase-producing genes blaTEM were detected in 51% (14/29) isolates that showed resistance to ampicillin. The biofilm-forming study revealed that 91.16% strong biofilm-forming E. coli isolates were resistant to ampicillin. Additionally, 18.18% non-biofilm-forming tetracycline-resistant E. coli isolates have been found in this study. In summary, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in Bangladesh to isolate and identify biofilm forming antibiotic resistant E. coli collected from environmental plastic surfaces, but further pathogenicity tests and resistome analysis are required to know the exact genetic resistance pattern.

Digital Transformation in Environmental Microbiology: Smart Monitoring Systems for Resilient Cities

• Er. Aditya Singh (Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham)

The environmental vulnerabilities have increased due to climate change as well as rapid urbanization, with the emerging microbial risks as a crucial aspect of urban resilience. The conventional monitoring systems frequently unable to record microbial activities in water, air, in addition to soil in real time, which limits the necessary interventions to be taken in the nick of time. This study discovers the way digital transformation with the assistance of AI, IoT enable biosensors, as well as big data platforms could reshape the environmental microbiology. If urban planning as well as governance systems, incorporates microbial data streams, then cities will be able to detect contamination, expect outbreaks, in addition to optimize the use of sustainable resources. The study will cover the gaps in the current literature, and it will further cover the case studies from smart city initiatives across the globe to show the digital tools could improve resilience in air quality surveillance, wastewater epidemiology, as well as soil health monitoring. This study will stress on the ways smart infrastructure could be integrated with environmental microbiology, while covering the possible benefits and obstacles on this path. Then, some graphical analysis will be done to understand the future of digitally transformed environmental microbiology to assist the smart monitoring systems in the making of resilient cities.