UCLA Engineering Class Publishes Research on E. coli in Water Near Farms

A UCLA undergraduate engineering course conducted a collaborative study that found E. coli bacteria with elevated resistance to multiple types of common antibiotics in surface waters downstream from large animal farms in Michigan.

Published in Environmental Microbiology Reports, the study underscores the need for increased environmental surveillance, as multidrug-resistant bacteria in the environment pose risks to public health and agriculture.

“Concentrated animal feeding operations are known to impact the health of nearby communities through elevated exposure to various types of pollutants,” said Jennifer Jay, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the study’s principal investigator. “Multidrug-resistant bacteria can have devastating effects on public health, limiting some first-line antibiotics from treatment options. Tracking drug-resistant bacteria ‘hot spots’ can help inform nearby communities on public health risks and can influence policies leading to more sustainable food systems.”

The study grew out of “Introduction to Community-Engaged Engineering Design,” a series of two-unit courses that aims to give undergraduate students experience solving real-world problems in collaboration with community partners. Over the past two years, these project-based classes have worked with the nonprofit Nature Conservancy to address remote sensing of water quality in Micronesia and bring clean water to a community in Uganda in partnership with the UCLA chapter of Engineers Without Borders.

This iteration of the class was designed and taught by Jay in collaboration with the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project (SRAP), a nonprofit organization headquartered in Claymont, Delaware. Field data collection and laboratory analysis were conducted by UCLA undergraduate students, guided by Jay and an undergraduate teaching assistant. This is the first peer-reviewed publication to emerge from the course series.

The students collected and tested surface water samples from five sites as close as half a mile from Michigan dairy and hog farms, as well as one site near a wastewater treatment plant. The samples were compared with those from control sites away from farms or treatment facilities.

E. coli in most of the samples near the farms showed elevated resistance to multiple common antibiotics, including tetracycline, ampicillin and erythromycin. This included 67% in samples at a site impacted by swine and dairy farms and 75% near a dairy site, compared with low levels found at the control sites.

“As a farmer and Michigan resident, I was excited to partner with UCLA to better understand antibiotic resistance in bacteria in our state’s waters and how that may be influenced by concentrated animal feeding operations,” said Lynn Henning, a program director with SRAP. “I’m hopeful these results will inform future research, regulations and policies that improve our understanding of the impacts on water quality and improve their oversight when appropriate.”

The collaboration also offered a hands-on learning experience for UCLA students to design experiments, conduct fieldwork and generate data with real-world impact. Renee Chowdhry, a member of Jay’s research lab and fourth-year student in microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, is the first author of the study and an undergraduate teaching assistant for the class.

“It has been such an amazing experience to be part of the process of creating a research project, implementing it, teaching other students and then getting to see the work being published,” Chowdhry said.

Jay is teaching the course again this fall, focusing on the environmental impacts of industrial food animal production. For Soeun Jun, a fourth-year student in materials science and engineering and a co-author of the study, taking multiple versions of the course inspired her to join Jay’s lab.

“I especially appreciated how the research was connected to real-world issues to explore critical environmental health concerns,” Jun said.

At UCLA, Jay directs the Center for Community Engagement and Environmental Justice and is a faculty member of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. This research was funded by the Joan Doren Family Foundation and the Teagle Foundation.