Degradation and fate of sulfamethazine (SMZ) were determined under aerobic and anaerobic conditions in soil with and without swine manure amendment. For both aerobic and anaerobic conditions, SMZ disappeared rapidly during the first 7 days followed by slow disappearance which may indicate that SMZ had become more persistent and less available. For soils receiving 100 mg/kg of SMZ, the percent of SMZ remaining in the soil after 63 days were between 25 and 60 %. Depending on the initial SMZ concentration, estimated half-lives for aerobic and anaerobic incubations ranged from 1.2 to 6.6 and 2.3 days to more than 63 days, respectively. Addition of manure (0.054 g/g soil) did not significantly affect the half-lives of SMZ. Inhibitory effects of SMZ on anaerobic microbial respiration were observed in unamended soil at concentrations of 50 mg/kg or higher, but only transient inhibitory effects were found in aerobic soil. Five to 22 % of the 14C[phenyl]-SMZ added were extracted at the end of the incubations while 70 to 91 % of the 14C were converted to bound (non-extractable) forms in both manure amended and unamended soil. Only 0.1 to 1.5 % of 14C-SMZ was mineralized to 14CO2. Disappearance of SMZ in sterilized soil was not completely halted indicating possible contribution of abiotic processes to the disappearance of SMZ in soil.