Occurrence and transformation of veterinary pharmaceuticals and biocides in manure: a literature review

Abstract

The spread of veterinary medicinal products (VMPs) and biocides via manure onto agriculturally used areas represents a very important emission into the environment for these product groups. Within this literature study, publicly available transformation studies with liquid manure are summarized. Transformation studies were evaluated regarding the transformation fate of tested substances, the origin and characteristics of used manure, the experimental setup, and the measured parameters. As main topics within the 42 evaluated transformation studies, the high dependency of transformation on temperature, redox potential, dry matter content, and other parameters is reported. Test duration throughout the studies ranged from 2 to 374 days and study temperature ranged from 5 to 55 °C. Only seven publications gave information on the redox potential of the manure. Further, the characterization of the matrix in many cases was inadequate due to missing parameters such as dry matter content or pH. Only three publications studied transformation of biocides. To allow for a consistent assessment of studies within the registration process, a harmonized internationally accepted and validated test method is needed. Additionally, monitoring data of VMPs in manure were collected from literature and evaluated regarding the origin and characteristics of the manure, the minimum/maximum found concentrations, and the percentage of identified compounds. Within the 27 evaluated publications, 1568 manure samples were analyzed and 39 different active substances for VMPs and 11 metabolites and transformation products of VMPs could be found in manure. Most often, the samples were analyzed for sulfonamides, tetracyclines, and fluoroquinolones. Not one study searched for biocides or worked with a non-target approach. For sulfadiazine and chlortetracycline, concentrations exceeding the predicted environmental concentrations were found.