The Effect of Sanitization Methods on Human Urine Collected From People Residing In Different Parts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2018-05-03
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Urine is rich in nutrients such as Nitrogen and Phosphorus which are essential for agriculture
and therefore worthy of safe recovery. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness
of acidification, storage and pasteurization of source-separated human urine in reducing
coliform bacteria. Urine samples were collected using acetic acid-treated portable toilets and
jerrycans from four sites of Addis Ababa namely; Addis Ababa University (AAU) Natural
Science campus, Merkato portable toilet, Megenagna public toilet and Gelila Elementary
school. Treatment of urine was conducted using Hydrochloric acid (HCl) heating to 80 ºC for
pasteurization and storage in tight-sealed containers at room temperature. The urine undergoing
the three sanitization methods were analyzed for their physico-chemical parameters, coliform
bacteria and for the stored samples, PCR-based detection of genes resistant to tetracycine
(tetB), sulfonamides (sul2) and quinolones (qnrB) were analyzed. The study showed the pH of
fresh urine collected from the four sites to be slightly acidic in the range of pH 5.2 and 5.8,
which increased to a maximum of 10.4 during storage for six months. Total coliforms in fresh
urine collected from the four sites of Addis Ababa ranged between the highest count of 234,000
cfu/ml to 64500 cfu/ml, which decreased steadily during the storage time reaching to nil at the
sixth month of storage. In all the fresh urine samples, fecal coliforms were detected with the
maximum count of 1500 cfu/100 ml in samples collected from AAU. Storage for one month
was efficient in reducing fecal coliform units to zero in all the samples collected from the four
sites. Pasteurization was also efficient in completely removing both total and fecal coliforms.
Acidification was didn‘t show any reduction in total coliform counts of urine collected from all
the four sites. Regarding fecal coliforms, a slight decrease was observed resulting in 20%
removal of fecal coliforms in the case of urine collected from Merkato .PCR-based detection of
tetB resistance gene from the meta-DNA revealed that fresh urine collected from AAU was
positive for the tetB which was absent at the sixth month of storage. Similarly, the fresh urine
sample collected from Merkato was positive for qnrB which persisted in the stored sample for 4
months and finally absent at the sixth month of storage. It was concluded that storage as a
sanitization process is the most effective method in reducing coliform bacteria and some of the
horizontally transmitted antibiotic resistance genes, with minimal loss of Nitrogen and
Phosphorus.
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Keywords
Urine, Coliforms, Storage, Nutrient Recovery, Antibiotic Resistance Genes