Int. J. One Health  Vol.11   No.2  Article - 4 

Electro-Fenton technology as an advanced oxidation process for eliminating antibiotic-resistant bacteria from Euphrates river water in Iraq

Background and Aim: The global rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) poses a major threat to environmental and public health, particularly in regions with inadequate wastewater treatment. Iraq’s Euphrates River is heavily contaminated with pharmaceuticals and resistant pathogens due to poor disposal practices and untreated effluents. This study evaluated the antibacterial efficacy of the electro-Fenton (EF) process, an advanced oxidation method that generates hydroxyl radicals (•OH), in reducing ARB from Euphrates river water.

Materials and Methods: Water samples were collected during May–August 2024 from three sites in Al-Muthanna Governorate: Al-Samawah, Al-Mahdi, and Al-Khidhir. Samples were subjected to eight EF treatments (5–40 V, 20 min each) using a locally fabricated EF unit with hydrogen peroxide, potassium chloride, and nitric acid to optimize hydroxyl radical generation. Bacterial contamination was assessed using multiple tube fermentation, thermotolerant detection of fecal coli­forms, total plate counts, biochemical identification, and analytical profile index (API) 20E tests. Antibiotic susceptibility was determined through disk diffusion against eight antibiotics.

Results: Before EF treatment, high bacterial loads were recorded across all sites, with counts exceeding >1600 most probable number (MPN)/100 mL for Escherichia coli, fecal coliforms, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter cloacae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Many isolates exhibited multidrug resistance, including resistance to vancomycin, ampicillin, and tetracycline. After EF treatment, bacterial counts markedly declined to <1.8 MPN/100 mL for most species, aligning with World Health Organization and Environmental Protection Agency water quality standards. Thermotolerant fecal coliforms were reduced to 6.8 MPN/100 mL. A slight resurgence of bacterial growth occurred at 40 V (treatment 8), likely due to com­peting side reactions at higher voltages.

Conclusion: This is the first study in Iraq to demonstrate the application of EF for ARB removal from river water. The results confirm EF as a highly effective, environmentally sustainable, and scalable approach for degrading pharmaceutical residues and reducing ARB contamination in surface water. Future research should include molecular profiling of resistance genes and broader geographic evaluation.

Keywords: advanced oxidation process, antibiotic resistance, electro-Fenton, Euphrates river, public health, water pollution.

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How to cite this article: Mohammed Jawad R.A. (2025) Electro-Fenton technology as an advanced oxidation process for eliminating antibiotic-resistant bacteria from Euphrates river water in Iraq, Int. J. One Health, 11(2): 225–241.

Received: 04-05-2025   Accepted: 25-07-2025   Published online: 28-09-2025

Corresponding author: Rafat A. Mohammed Jawad    E-mail: rafat.abdulhassan@mu.edu.iq

DOI: 10.14202/IJOH.2025.225-241

Copyright: Mohammed Jawad, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.