## 3 Results
### Changes in the \(\alpha\)- and \(\beta\)-Diversity of Bacterial and Fungal Communities  
Passage of the sludge through the earthworm gut decreased taxonomic bacterial diversity (Inverse Simpson index, Kruskal-Wallis \(p\) = 0.053, Figure S2A) but did not change the phylogenetic bacterial diversity (Faith index, Supplementary Figure S2E) or bacterial richness (raw and Chao1 estimates, Supplementary Figure S2A,C). The cast ageing processes increased the taxonomic bacterial diversity (Inverse Simpson index, Kruskal-Wallis \(p\) = 0.009, Figure 2A), phylogenetic bacterial diversity (Faith index, Kruskal-Wallis \(p\) < 0.05, Supplementary Figure S2E) and bacterial richness (raw and Chao1 estimates, Kruskal-Wallis \(p\) < 0.05, Supplementary Figure S2A,C).  
Passage of the sludge through the earthworm gut also significantly decreased fungal diversity (Inverse Simpson index, Kruskal-Wallis \(p\) = 0.004, Figure S2B) but did not change fungal \(\alpha\)-diversity in terms of richness (Kruskal-Wallis \(p\) = 0.33, Supplementary Figure S2B) and Chao1 richness estimator (Kruskal-Wallis \(p\) = 0.32, Supplementary Figure S2D).  
In addition to the changes in bacterial \(\alpha\)-diversity, we observed significant changes in bacterial \(\beta\)-diversity during the vermicomposting process. Thus, the bacterial communities in sewage sludge, earthworm casts and vermicompost showed significant differences in PCa 1 and PCa 2 of Bray-Curtis (Kruskal-Wallis \(p\) = 0.0019 for both axes, Figure 2C), Jaccard (Kruskal-Wallis \(p\) = 0.0019 for both axes) and weighted and unweighted UniFrac distance matrices (Kruskal-Wallis \(p\) < 0.01 for both axes and distance matrices; Supplementary Figure S3A,C,D). There were also significant differences in fungal communities between sewage sludge and earthworm cast as well as between sewage sludge and vermicompost in PCa 1. However, there were no differences in PCa 2 for Bray-Curtis matrices (Kruskal-Wallis test, \(p\) = 0.008 and \(p\) = 0.73, respectively; see Figure 2D) or Jaccard distance (Kruskal-Wallis test, \(p\) = 0.008 and \(p\) = 0.73, respectively; see Supplementary Figure S3B).  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline
**ASVs** & **Species** & **Sludge** & **Cast** & **Vermicompost** \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{ASV43} & _Arcobacter_ & 1.34 \(\pm\) 0.72 & - & 0.01 \(\pm\) 0.03 \\  & _cryaerophilus_ & 0.94 \(\pm\) 0.46 & - & - \\  & _Bacteroides vulgaris_ & 0.81 \(\pm\) 0.4 & - & - \\  & _Collinsella aerofaciens_ & 0.2 \(\pm\) 0.19 & - & 0.02 \(\pm\) 0.02 \\  & _Sebaldella ternitidis_ & 0.2 \(\pm\) 0.06 & - & - \\  & _Bacteroides massiliensis_ & 0.16 \(\pm\) 0.12 & - & - \\  & _Dialister invisius_ & 0.12 \(\pm\) 0.08 & - & - \\  & _Bacteroides accae_ & 0.04 \(\pm\) 0.09 & - & - \\  & _Larilucter_ & 0.02 \(\pm\) 0.06 & - & - \\  & _Inboxgenesis_ & 0.02 \(\pm\) 0.03 & - & - \\  & _Bilophila vadasworthia_ & 0.02 \(\pm\) 0.03 & - & - \\  & _Turicibacter sanguinis_ & - & 0.21 \(\pm\) 0.14 & 0.14 \(\pm\) 0.05 \\  & _Cellulosinicrobium_ & - & 0.1 \(\pm\) 0.13 & - \\  & _cellulans_ & - & 0.06 \(\pm\) 0.14 & - \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Relative abundance of the human bacterial pathogens in sewage sludge, casts and vermicompost from the earthworm _[PERSON]_. Mean and SE (N = 5).