Fate of veterinary antibiotics during animal manure composting

Min Zhang; Liang-Ying He; You-Sheng Liu; Jian-Liang Zhao; Wang-Rong Liu; Jin-Na Zhang; Jun Chen; Lun-Kai He; Qian-Qian Zhang; Guang-Guo Ying

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.147

Fate of veterinary antibiotics during animal manure composting

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Feb 10;650(Pt 1):1363-1370. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.147. Epub 2018 Sep 12.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China; The Environmental Research Institute, MOE Key Laboratory of Environmental Theoretical Chemistry, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² The Environmental Research Institute, MOE Key Laboratory of Environmental Theoretical Chemistry, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
³ South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Environment Protection, Guangzhou 510655, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China; The Environmental Research Institute, MOE Key Laboratory of Environmental Theoretical Chemistry, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
⁶ The Environmental Research Institute, MOE Key Laboratory of Environmental Theoretical Chemistry, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China. Electronic address: guangguo.ying@m.scnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 30308823
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.147

Abstract

Antibiotics are widely used in animals for disease treatment and prevention. After use, these antibiotics end up in manure. Here we investigated the fate of veterinary antibiotics in animal manure during composting and their residues in manure-applied soils. The results showed that 64.7% of the detected veterinary antibiotics were removed after composting for 171 days, which mainly occurred at the thermophilic phase in the second week, followed by a long stable stage with limited variations. The removal rates for lincomycin, trimethoprim and the macrolides during the composting were >89.7%, while those for the sulfonamides, tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones were less than <63.7%. The dissipation of antibiotics during the composting was related to the change of compost physicochemical properties, especially moisture and C/N ratio. The application of compost products with antibiotic residues could still lead to soil contamination, which may pose risks of resistance selection to the soil ecosystem.

Keywords: Dissipation; Manure composting; Risk assessment; Veterinary antibiotics.

MeSH terms

Animals
Anti-Bacterial Agents / analysis*
Anti-Bacterial Agents / chemistry
Composting*
Environmental Monitoring
Manure
Soil / chemistry
Soil Pollutants / analysis*
Sulfonamides
Tetracyclines / analysis

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Manure
Soil
Soil Pollutants
Sulfonamides
Tetracyclines