Lierelva

This project will evaluate the potential of microplastic in waste water and fresh water environments to function as transport vectors for food-and waterborne pathogenic bacteria and viruses.

02 aug. 2020 - 02 okt. 2024
  • Quite a lot of attention has during the last years been paid to the health risk associated with microplastics in the environment and in food. However, the assessments done are so far inconclusive, and the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment affirms that still very limited data of acceptable quality are available on levels of microplastics in foods. In PLASTPATH, we will study if it is reasonable to claim that microplastic in the environment play an important role in the dissemination and protection of bacteria and virus transmitted via food and water. In case, it means that abundance of microplastics will contribute to increased numbers of food- and waterborne diseases. Our hypothesis is that bacteria and virus, by hitch-hiking attached to the microplastics within the food production chains, will travel longer and be more protected compared to the microbes that “travel alone”. We assume that this microplastic protection is relevant until pathogenic microbes are released in the gut or being absorbed into body tissues.

  • The project will start by characterization of microbe populations on the surface of microplastics isolated from wastewater and sludge from two wastewater treatment plants and fresh water (Lierelva) environments. Further we will study of how such microbe populations develop in controlled laboratory experiments by using standard cultivation procedures and a novel microfluidic platform. The next steps are investigations of the impact of the microbe-microplastic association on microbial survival through an in vitro digestive system and on the pathogenicity of the microbes and the interaction of the plastisphere in the digestive system of Medaka fish in an in vivo model.

Participants

Hauk Larssønn Holten

Student

Andreas Halvor Sedin

Student


External participants

  • Carlos Salas Bringas
    Freelance
  • Razak Seidu
    Professor, NTNU Ålesund
  • Marie Fauskrud
    PhD Candidate, NTNU Ålesund
  • Nils Kristian Afseth
    NOFIMA
  • Kirsti Grundnes Berg
    VEAS Vestfjorden Avløpsselskap
  • Chawan Ahmed
    VIVA IKS, vestviken interkommunale vei, vann og avløpsselskap
  • Albert Bosch Navarro
    University of Barcelona
Microplastic circulating in the food chain
Microplastic circulating in the food chain
The Plastpath group
The PLASTPATH group
Yngvild Wasteson in the reiver with the biofilm collector
Our dedicated project manager, Yngvild Wasteson, volunteered to go go for a swim in the cold river to pick up the biofilm collector,