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Residues and potential ecological risks of veterinary antibiotics in manures and composts associated with protected vegetable farming

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Abstract

Veterinary antibiotics (VAs) are emerging contaminants and enter into soil principally by agricultural application of organic fertilizer. A total of 33 solid animal manures and 17 compost samples from protected vegetable farms in nine areas of China were analyzed for the antibiotic classes of tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones, sulfonamides, and macrolides (17 substances in total). Oxytetracycline was found as a dominant compound in the samples, and its highest concentration reached 416.8 mg kg−1 in a chicken manure sample from Shouguang, Shandong Province. Among the samples, animal manures (especially pig manure) contained higher VA residues than composts. However, fluoroquinolones exhibited higher persistence in the compost samples than other antibiotic classes. This is particularly the case in the rice husk compost, which contained the highest level of ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin (1334.5 and 1717.4 μg kg−1 on average, respectively). The veterinary antibiotic profile in the risk husk compost had a good relationship with that in the corresponding manures. The refined commercial compost had the lowest VA residues among the compost samples in general. This implied that composting process might be important to reduce the antibiotic residue. High residue of antibiotics in soil was assumed to be a hazard to ecosystem. This is especially noticeable under current application rates (150 t ha−1 a−1) in protected vegetable farming because over half of the samples exhibited a risk quotient (RQ) >1 for one or more antibiotics.

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Abbreviations

VAs:

Veterinary antibiotics

TC:

Tetracycline

OTC:

Oxytetracycline

CTC:

Chlortetracycline

DOC:

Doxycycline

SDZ:

Sulfadiazine

SMX:

Sulfamethoxazole

SMZ:

Sulfamethazine

SMM:

Sulfamonomethoxine

SCX:

Sulfachinoxalin

SDM:

Sulfadimethoxine

SM:

Sulfameter

SCZ:

Sulfaclozine

NFC:

Norfloxacin

OFC:

Ofloxacin

CFC:

Ciprofloxacin

EFC:

Enrofloxacin

RTM:

Roxithromycin

SAs:

Sulfonamides

FQs:

Fluoroquinolones

TCs:

Tetracyclines

CC:

Refined commercial compost

RHC:

Rice husk compost

SMC:

Soybean meal compost

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41371313 and 41230858) and the R&D Special Fund for Public Welfare Industry (Environment) (201109018-4). We appreciate the two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the paper’s revision.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, 264003, China

    Haibo Zhang & Yongming Luo

  2. Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Longhua Wu & Yujuan Huang

  3. Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Newforge Lane, Belfast, BT9 5PX, UK

    Peter Christie

Authors
  1. Haibo Zhang
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  2. Yongming Luo
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  3. Longhua Wu
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  4. Yujuan Huang
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  5. Peter Christie
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Correspondence to Yongming Luo.

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Responsible editor: Leif Kronberg

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Zhang, H., Luo, Y., Wu, L. et al. Residues and potential ecological risks of veterinary antibiotics in manures and composts associated with protected vegetable farming. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 5908–5918 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3731-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3731-9

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