Sponsor
This study was financially supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) in the form of a grant (1751954) awarded to AJ. No additional external funding was received for this study. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Published In
Plos One
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2023
Subjects
Floods -- North Carolina -- Environmental aspects, Hurricane Florence (2018) -- Environemntal aspects, Water -- Composition -- Testing, Salmonella enterica, Drug resistance in microorganisms
Abstract
The severity of hurricanes, and thus the associated impacts, is changing over time. One of the understudied threats from damage caused by hurricanes is the potential for cross-contamination of water bodies with pathogens in coastal agricultural regions. Using microbiological data collected after hurricanes Florence and Michael, this study shows a dichotomy in the presence of pathogens in coastal North Carolina and Florida. Salmonella typhimurium was abundant in water samples collected in the regions dominated by swine farms. A drastic decrease in Enterococcus spp. in Carolinas is indicative of pathogen removal with flooding waters. Except for the abundance presence of Salmonella typhimurium, no significant changes in pathogens were observed after Hurricane Michael in the Florida panhandle. We argue that a comprehensive assessment of pathogens must be included in decision-making activities in the immediate aftermath of hurricanes to build resilience against risks of pathogenic exposure in rural agricultural and human populations in vulnerable locations.
Rights
Copyright (c) 2023 The Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0273757
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/40642
Citation Details
Usmani, M., Uprety, S., Bonham, N., Jamal, Y., Mao, Y., Sano, D., ... & Jutla, A. (2023). Assessment of pathogens in flood waters in coastal rural regions: Case study after Hurricane Michael and Florence. Plos one, 18(8), e0273757.