Development of sensitive and reliable LC-MS/MS methods for the determination of three fluoroquinolones in water and fish tissue samples and preliminary environmental risk assessment of their presence in two rivers in northern Poland

Abstract

Antibiotic consumption (e.g. fluoroquinolones (FQs)) and, as a consequence, their presence in the environment, have received a lot of attention in the last several years due to increasing numbers of diseases and infections that are becoming resistant to traditional treatments for both humans and animals. In addition, even though antibiotics are safe for human and veterinary usage, ecosystems may be exposed to these substances. In this study, analytical methods for determining enrofloxacin (ENR), norfloxacin (NOR) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) in water samples and fish tissue based on the LC-MS/MS technique were developed and validated. As there is no data available concerning the risks posed by antibiotics in Poland, the proposed methods were applied for monitoring drug presence in environmental samples collected from two rivers in northern Poland. Evaluations of the ecotoxicity of ENR, NOR and CIP towards four different species of aquatic organisms: marine bacteria (Vibrio fischeri), green algae (Scenedesmus vacuolatus), duckweed (Lemna minor) and crustacean (Daphnia magna), were also carried out. All the investigated compounds were detected at least once in the survey. NOR was found to be the most ubiquitous drug with concentrations of up to 442.8ngL−1. Moreover, it was established that L. minor is the most sensitive species to the investigated drugs (EC50NOR=0.13mgL−1, EC50ENR=0.22mgL−1 and EC50CIP=0.34mgL−1). The calculated risk quotient (RQ) values confirmed that the concentrations of the investigated FQs in the environmental samples were at a level of moderate environmental risk (1<RO≤10), however, for CIP they were found to be closer to a level of high environmental risk (RQCIP=8.1).