Dissipation of sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim and tylosin in a soil under aerobic and anoxic conditions
Feng Liu A , Guang-Guo Ying A B , Ji-Feng Yang A , Li-Jun Zhou A , Ran Tao A , Li Wang A , Li-Juan Zhang A and Ping-An Peng AA State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
B Corresponding author. Email: guangguo.ying@gmail.com
Environmental Chemistry 7(4) 370-376 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN09160
Submitted: 9 March 2010 Accepted: 4 June 2010 Published: 20 August 2010
Environmental context. Wide application of antibiotics in the treatment of human beings and animals has led to increasing concern about their safe disposal. After use, antibiotics may enter the soil environment via disposal of wastes such as biosolids and animal manure. We investigated the biotic and abiotic factors that influence the dissipation in soil of three commonly used antibiotics sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim and tylosin.
Abstract. Antibiotics could enter soil via application of biosolids as fertilisers, thus resulting in soil contamination. This study investigated the persistence of sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim and tylosin in a soil under aerobic and anoxic conditions. The dissipation of the antibiotics in the soil followed first-order reaction kinetics. The half-lives of sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim and tylosin were 2, 4 and 8 days in non-sterile soil under aerobic conditions respectively. Under anoxic conditions, their half-lives in non-sterile soil were 7, 11 and 16 days respectively. Sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim dissipated more rapidly in non-sterile soil than in sterile soil. Biodegradation played a major role in the dissipation of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim in the soil. No significant difference was found for tylosin between the sterile and non-sterile treatments under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions, suggesting that abiotic factors were responsible for the dissipation of tylosin in the soil.
Additional keywords: antibiotics, degradation, redox conditions.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Earmarked Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC40771180, 40688001 and 40821003) and Guangdong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (8251064004000001). This is a contribution (1199) from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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