Occurrence of Antibiotics in Hog-Waste Lagoons from Confined-Animal Feeding Operations from 1998 to 2002

Antibiotics residues in agricultural waste may help maintain or encourage antibiotic resistance. Knowledge of antibiotic residues in human and animal waste may prove to be important to understand microbial reistance patterns in the environment. Thus it is important to understand the occurrence and distribution of antibiotics in confined-animal feeding operations. Samples of liquid hog lagoon and pit waste were analyzed for antibiotic residues as part of several disparate studies of swine animal-feeding operations. These studies were conducted in six states (North Carolina, Iowa, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, and Illinois) at different time intervals between 1998 and 2002. The liquid waste samples were analyzed for 22 antibiotics using liquid chromatography/electrospray-mass spectrometry. The most frequently detected antibiotics were chlortetracycline, sulfamethazine, and lincomycin. Samples from Oklahoma contained greater concentrations of sulfathiazole and oxytetracycline than sulfamethazine and chlortetracycline, respectively. In a few samples from Illinois low concentrations of virginiamycin, and tylosin were detected. The concentrations of the most frequently detected antibiotics ranged from low mg/L to low mg/L. The data indicate that the tetracycline and sulfonamide class of antibiotics and lincomycin are widely used in swine animal-feeding operations and that they either revert back to the parent compound after excretion or resist degradation.

Meyer, M.T., Ferrell, Gloria, Bumgarner, Joe, Cole, Dana, and Hutchins, Steve, 2004, Occurrence of antibiotics in hog-waste lagoons from confined-animal feeding operations from 1998 to 2002 [abs.], in 21st Annual Water and Future of Kansas Conference, March 11, 2004, Lawrence, Kansas: Manhattan, Kansas Water Resources Research Institute, p. 13.