Distribution and Antibiotic Resistance Profiles of in Rural Areas of North Carolina After Hurricane Florence in 2018.

In this study, water samples were analyzed from a rural area of North Carolina after Hurricane Florence in 2018 and the distribution of the virulence gene of were investigated. We also examined the distribution of culturable and determined their antibiotic resistance profiles. Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the classes of aminoglycoside, beta-lactam, and macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B (MLSB) were targeted in this study. The gene was detected in 23 out of 25 locations. There was a wider and higher range of the gene in flooded water versus unflooded water samples (0-2.12 × 10 copies/L vs. 0-4.86 × 10 copies/L). Culturable was isolated from 10 of 25 sampling locations, which was less prevalent than the distribution of the gene. The antibiotic resistance profiles were not distinct among the isolates. The aminoglycoside resistance gene had the highest relative abundance (around 0.05 copies/16S rRNA gene copy in all isolates) among all ARGs. These findings suggested that the 2018 flooding event led to higher copy numbers of the genes of in some flooded water bodies compared to those in unflooded water bodies. The high ARG level and similar ARG profiles were observed in all isolates from both flooded and unflooded samples, suggesting that the antibiotic resistance was prevalent in within this region, regardless of flooding.