Rice straw biochar (RSB) and mushroom biochar (MB) were added to lab-scale chicken manure composting to evaluate their effects on the behaviors of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and on total and bioavailable heavy metals (Cu, Zn and As). The associated bacterial community was characterized by 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing. The abundance of pathogenic bacteria was also calculated. At the end of the control composting experiment, the average removal rate of ARGs was 0.86 log units and the removal rate of pathogenic bacteria was 57.1%. MB addition resulted in a higher removal rate than that in the control composting experiment. However, RSB addition yielded opposite results, which may be due to the higher abundance of Erysipelotrichaceae, Lactobacillaceae, Family_XI_Incertae_Sedis (belonging to Firmicutes carrying and disseminating ARGs) and pathogenic bacteria carrying ARGs. Furthermore, the correlations between bio-available heavy metals and ARGs were more obvious than those between total heavy metals and ARGs. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.