We investigated the anaerobic degradation of tetracycline antibiotics (tetracycline [TC], oxytetracycline [OTC] and chlortetracycline [CTC]) in swine, cattle, and poultry manures. The manures were anaerobically digested inside polyvinyl chloride batch reactors for 64 days at room temperature. The degradation rate constants and half-lives of the parent tetracyclines were determined following first-order kinetics. For CTC the fastest degradation rate was observed in swine manure (k = 0.016 ± 0.001 d-1; half-life = 42.8 days), while the slowest degradation rate was observed in poultry litter (k = 0.0043 ± 0.001 d-1; half-life = 161 days). The half-lives of OTC ranged between 88.9 (cattle manure) and 99.0 days (poultry litter), while TC persisted the longest of the tetracycline antibiotics studied with half-lives ranging from 92.4 days (cattle manure) to 330 days (swine manure). In general, the tetracyclines were found to degrade faster in cattle manure, which had the lowest concentrations of organic matter and metals as compared to swine and poultry manures. Our results demonstrate that tetracycline antibiotics persist in the animal manure after anaerobic digestion, which can potentially lead to emergence and persistence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment when anaerobic digestion byproducts are land applied for crop production.
Keywords: Anaerobic digestion; animal manure; degradation rates; half-life; tetracyclines.