Prevalence of heavy metal resistance in bacteria isolated from tannery effluents and affected soil.

In the present study, a total of 198 bacteria were isolated, 88 from the tannery effluents and 110 from agricultural soil irrigated with the tannery effluents. Tannery effluents and soils were analyzed for metal concentrations by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The tannery effluents and soil samples were found to be contaminated with chromium, nickel, zinc, copper, and cadmium. All isolates were tested for their resistance against Cr(6+ ), Cr(3+ ), Ni(2+ ), Zn(2+ ), Cu(2+ ), Cd(2+ ), and Hg(2+ ). From the total of 198 isolates, maximum bacterial isolates were found to be resistant to Cr(6+ ) 178 (89.9%) followed by Cr(3+ ) 146 (73.7%), Cd(2+ ) 86 (43.4%), Zn(2+ ) 83 (41.9%), Ni(2+ ) 61 (30.8%), and Cu(2+ ) 51 (25.6%). However, most of the isolates were sensitive to Hg(2+ ). Among the isolates from tannery effluents, 97.8% were resistant to Cr(6+ ) and 64.8% were resistant to Cr(3+ ). Most of the soil isolates were resistant against Cr(6+ ) (83.6%) and Cr(3+ ) (81.8%). All isolates were categorized into Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. In a total of 114 Gram-positive isolates, 91.2% were resistant to Cr(6+ ) followed by 73.7% to Cr(3+ ), 42.1% to Zn(2+ ), 40.4% to Cd(2+ ), and 32.5% to Ni(2+ ). Among Gram-negative isolates, 88.1% were found showing resistance to Cr(6+ ), 75.0% to Cr(3+ ), and 47.6% were resistant to Cd(2+ ). Majority of these metal-resistant isolates were surprisingly found sensitive to the ten commonly used antibiotics. Out of 198 isolates, 114 were found sensitive to all antibiotics whereas only two isolates were resistant to maximum eight antibiotics at a time. Forty-one and 40 isolates which constitute 20.7% and 20.2% were resistant to methicilin and amoxicillin, respectively.