Many farmers in developing countries protect their crops with oxytetracycline and fertilize their farmlands with manure from animals that received this drug as growth promoter. In this study, a tropical soil was exposed to 0.1 mg kg(-1), 1 mg kg(-1), and 10 mg kg(-1) of oxytetracycline for 22 days to evaluate whether this antibiotic alters the capacity of a soil microbial community to metabolize 31 carbon sources. The communities exposed to 1 and 10 mg kg(-1) of oxytetracycline exhibited reduced catabolic activities for 3 and 6 substrates, respectively. In contrast, the communities exposed to 0.1 mg kg(-1) of oxytetracycline showed higher catabolic activities than the controls and the other two treatments for 19 substrates. These data reveal a hormetic response at the community level not previously described for soil bacteria and oxytetracycline.
Keywords: CLPP; ecotoxicology; oxytetracycline; tropical soil; bacteria.