Project information

• PrincipalInvestigator:Dr. Saranya Kuppusamy,
  Ramanujan Fellow (Scientist D/ Assistant Professor Equivalent)
• Funding Agency: DST-SERB Govt. of India
• Period: 2018-2023
• Background:
• Globally, besides human medicine, veterinary antibiotics (VAs) are widely used in the agricultural sector.
• VAs are usually poorly sorbed in the animal gut, and the majority are excreted unchanged or as their recalcitrant metabolites in faeces and urine.
• Increasing use of animal wastes as manures in agriculture is posing threat to the environment and human health.
• Limited efforts had been made till date to understand about the occurrence, fate and behavior of VAs in agricultural soils, especially in India.
• Indeed large knowledge gaps still exists concerning VAs decontamination and thereby limit its resistance development in the terrestrial system.


• Objectives:
  In this project, for the first time in India, we firstly focus on the following:
  • Identification of VAs contamination and occurrence of VAs-resistant bacteria/genes in agricultural environments
  • Understanding the fate and risks of VAs in the agricultural environment
  • Development of sustainable, remediation strategies for preventing VAs spread, persistence and resistance development in the soils of agricultural fields


• Product Oriented Delivery:
  • Bioproduct that remediate VAs in the contaminated soil/water/wastewater