Overview

• Researchers analyzed lavatory wastewater from 44 international flights to Australia from nine countries, detecting nine high-priority pathogens.
• Five of the nine pathogens appeared in all samples, and a gene conferring resistance to last-resort antibiotics was found on 17 flights but not in contemporaneous Australian urban wastewater.
• Nucleic acids in the toilet wastewater remained detectable for up to 24 hours despite strong disinfectants, supporting the method’s reliability.
• Flights from Asia—particularly India—showed higher concentrations of antibiotic-resistance genes than those from Europe and the UK.
• The proof-of-concept, published in Microbiology Spectrum, aims to complement existing public health systems but will require coordination with airlines, labs and health agencies to scale.