Environmental fate of the anti-parasitic ivermectin in an aquatic micro-ecological system after a single oral administration.

Di Wang,Xue Du,Shaowu Li,Bing Han,Tongyan Lu,Yongsheng Cao

doi:10.7717/peerj.7805

Abstract

BackgroundIvermectin (IVM) has been widely used in the aquaculture industry since its efficacy against parasites. However, the degradation of IVM was very slow in aquatic environments and the environmental fate of IVM in a complete aquatic system was still not clear. Therefore, comparable studies in a complete aquatic system were merited and helped to elucidate the environmental fate and effects of IVM.MethodsAn aquatic micro-ecological system containing an aquatic environment (water and sediment) and aquatic organisms (invertebrates, aquatic plants and fish) was built to simulate the natural rearing conditions. A single dose of 0.3 mg kg−1 body weight of IVM was given to the fish by oral gavage. Water, sediment, the roots and leaves of the aquatic plants, the soft tissue of the invertebrates and the visceral mass and muscle of fish samples were collected at 0.5 hours, 1 day, 7 days, 15 days, 30 days, 45 days, 60 days and 70 days after the treatment. IVM concentration in each sample was determined using ELISA method.ResultsIVM was quickly and widely distributed into the whole aquatic system in one day, and then was highly accumulated in organisms resulting in long-term residues. IVM was exchanged multiple times between the different media, which caused continuous fluctuations in the concentration of IVM in the water and sediment. It was worth noting that there was a second peak value of IVM in the fish and invertebrates after 30 days. The environmental fate of the IVM in the aquatic micro-ecological system showed that the drug was transferred from the fish to aquatic plants in the first seven days, and then gathered in the water and sediment, finally accumulating in the invertebrates. Our results indicated that an effective aquatic micro-ecological system was successfully established, and it could be applied to the study the environmental fate of IVM, which will aid the scientific use of this anti-parasitic agent during aquaculture.

Highlights

With the increasing awareness of food and environmental security, public concern and scientific studies on pharmaceutical drugs in the environment have increased over theHow to cite this article Wang D, Han B, Li S, Cao Y, Du X, Lu T. 2019
Ivermectin (IVM) is a macrocyclic lactone derived from avermectins (AVMs), which is comprised of two homologues (≥80% 22, 23-dihydroavermectin B1a and ≤20% 22, 23-dihydroavermectin B1b) (Rath et al, 2016)
The fate and effects of IVM on soil invertebrates in terrestrial model ecosystems were assessed in Terrestrial Model Ecosystems (TMEs), and the results showed that IVM generally had low to moderate effects on soil organisms (Forster et al, 2011)

Summary

Introduction

With the increasing awareness of food and environmental security, public concern and scientific studies on pharmaceutical drugs in the environment have increased over theHow to cite this article Wang D, Han B, Li S, Cao Y, Du X, Lu T. 2019. Environmental fate of the anti-parasitic ivermectin in an aquatic micro-ecological system after a single oral administration. Comparable studies in a complete aquatic system were merited and helped to elucidate the environmental fate and effects of IVM. An aquatic micro-ecological system containing an aquatic environment (water and sediment) and aquatic organisms (invertebrates, aquatic plants and fish) was built to simulate the natural rearing conditions. The environmental fate of the IVM in the aquatic micro-ecological system showed that the drug was transferred from the fish to aquatic plants in the first seven days, and gathered in the water and sediment, accumulating in the invertebrates. Our results indicated that an effective aquatic micro-ecological system was successfully established, and it could be applied to the study the environmental fate of IVM, which will aid the scientific use of this anti-parasitic agent during aquaculture

Methods

Results

Conclusion