Fate of chlortetracycline antibiotics during anaerobic degradation of cattle manure

Abstract

As veterinary antibiotics (VAs) cause adverse effects on nature, anaerobic digestion (AD) of livestock manure has been receiving attention as an exposure route of VAs. This research evaluated the anaerobic degradation and phase distribution of chlortetracycline (CTC) with its epimer (4-epi-CTC, ECTC) and isomer (Iso-CTC, ICTC). In addition, whether CTC can inhibit not only AD of a substrate but also the degradation of CTC was assessed. Anaerobic batch assays were performed with cattle manure for 30 days by varying the initial concentration of CTC; 0, 10, 25, 50, and 100 mg/L. Approximately 25–43 % (w/w) of CTC was primarily degraded while 18–25 % and 20–26 % of CTC was transformed into ECTC and ICTC, respectively. Up to 88 % (w/w) of the remaining CTC, ECTC, and ICTC was present in the solid phase. In addition, CTC inhibited not only the mineralization of the cattle manure but also the degradation of CTC due to co-metabolism. In conclusion, significant quantities of CTC, ECTC, and ICTC can be exposed to nature by solid phase of anaerobic digestate. The inhibition on AD can reduce the degradation of CTC, ECTC, and ICTC during the AD.