A lysimeter experiment to investigate the leaching of veterinary antibiotics through a clay soil and comparison with field data

Pharmaceuticals used in livestock production may be present in manure and slurry as the parent compound and/or metabolites. The environment may therefore be exposed to these substances due to the application of organic fertilisers to agricultural land or deposition by grazing livestock. For other groups of substances that are applied to land (e.g. pesticides), preferential flow in clay soils has been identified as an extremely important mechanism by which surface water pollution can occur. This lysimeter study was therefore performed to investigate the fate of three antibiotics from the sulphonamide, tetracycline and macrolide groups in a clay soil. Only sulphachloropyridazine was detected in leachate and soil analysis at the end of the experiment showed that almost no antibiotic residues remained. These data were analysed alongside field data for the same compounds to show that soil tillage which breaks the connectivity of macropores formed over the summer months, prior to slurry application, significantly reduces chemical mobility.     

Application of nanoparticle tracking analysis for characterising the fate of engineered nanoparticles in sediment-water systems

Novel applications of nanotechnology may lead to the release of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs), which result in concerns over their potential environmental hazardous impact. It is essential for the research workers to be able to quantitatively characterise ENPs in the environment and subsequently to assist the risk assessment of the ENPs. This study hence explored the application of nanoparticle tracking system (NTA) to quantitatively describe the behaviour of the ENPs in natural sediment-water systems. The NTA allows the measurement of both particle number concentration (PNC) and particle size distribution (PSD) of the ENPs. The developed NTA method was applied to a range of gold and magnetite ENPs with a selection of surface properties. The results showed that the positively-charged ENPs interacted more strongly with the sediment than neutral and negatively-charged ENPs. It was also found that the citrate coated Au ENPs had a higher distribution percentage (53%) than 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid coated Au ENPs (20%) and citrate coated magnetite ENPs (21%). The principles of the electrostatic interactions between hard (and soft) acids and bases (HSAB) are used to explain such behaviours; the hard base coating (i.e. citrate ions) will interact more strongly with hard acid (i.e. magnetite) than soft acid (i.e. gold). The results indicate that NTA is a complementary method to existing approaches to characterise the fate and behaviour of ENPs in natural sediment.     

Evaluation of approaches for terrestrial hazard classification

Hazard assessment is an essential element in the evaluation of the potential effects of chemical substances on the environment. To date, most work has focused on hazard assessment schemes for the aquatic environment, but in recent years, a number of proposals have been developed for other environmental compartments. Due to limited datasets, the suitability of the toxicity cut-off values in these schemes has not been fully determined and the practicalities associated with using these approaches have not been fully established. This study, which focused on the soil compartment, was performed to examine cut-off values proposed by two terrestrial hazard assessment schemes and establish the availability of data. Data on earthworms indicated that current proposals for toxicity cut-off values are appropriate. However, analysis of IUCLID (International Uniform ChemicaL Information Database) indicates that even for commonly used high production volume chemicals, insufficient data are available to enable classification. Whilst the necessary data may already be available for selected groups of substances (e.g. pesticides and veterinary medicines), a significant experimental testing programme would therefore be required before a terrestrial classification system could be applied widely. Such data may become available in the future as a result of initiatives such as REACH.     

Column studies to investigate the fate of veterinary antibiotics in clay soils following slurry application to agricultural land

The environment may be exposed to veterinary medicines administered to livestock due to the application of organic fertilisers to land. For other groups of substances that are applied to agricultural land (e.g. pesticides), preferential flow in underdrained clay soils has been identified as an extremely important pathway by which pollution of surface waters can occur. Three soil column leaching experiments have therefore been carried out using a clay soil to investigate the fate of a range of antibiotics from the sulphonamide, tetracycline and macrolide groups. These column studies complemented a range of other experiments at the field and semi-field scales, as well as modelling studies which are being reported in separate papers. Each column study had a different objective. The first examined the effect of pig slurry on the mobility of antibiotics in clay loam soil. The second experiment investigated changes in soil water pH due to the application of slurry. The final experiment quantified the extent to which soil tillage prior to slurry application can reduce the leaching of antibiotic residues found in slurry. It was found that slurry had no impact on the leaching of oxytetracycline although soil water pH was affected significantly by slurry application. It was also shown that pre-tillage can substantially reduce the leaching of antibiotic residues through macroporous clay soils.     

基于自然环境中优选药物的毒性和生态毒理风险研究

在如今超过1 500种在用原料药中,环境中发现几率明确和对环境影响明确的原料药所占比例很小。由于很难监管所有在用原料药,众多先前的研究提议将原料药按照受关注程度排序,从而可以将研究资源集中于那些最受瞩目的药物。然而这些研究都存在局限性,本文从之前优先性方法的实践经验出发,提出了一种更为全面的原料药排序方法。该方法基于对水生生物、土壤生物、鸟类、野生哺乳动物和人类的风险,综合考虑了食物链顶端存在的生态毒理学研究终点和由这些治疗性药物作用机制带来的非顶端效果。对于在英国社区以及医院设置中使用的146种活性药物的分析可以更为详细地说明该方法的运用。根据这一方法,我们将16种化合物列为优先考虑的药物。这些药物包括了抗生素、抗抑郁药、抗炎药、抗糖尿病药、抗肥胖药、雌激素类化合物以及相关的代谢产物。我们建议这种优先性方法在将来可以更广泛地应用于世界上不同的地区。
精选自Jiahua Guo, Chris J. Sinclair, Katherine Selby, Alistair B.A. Boxall. Toxicological and ecotoxicological risk based prioritisation of pharmaceuticals in the natural environment. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry: Volume 35, Issue 7, pages 1550–1559, July 2016. DOI: 10.1002/etc.3319
详情请见http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/etc.3319/full
     

The On-Ranch Economics of Riparian Zone Cattle Grazing Management

A simulation model of a cattle ranch based in southern Alberta, Canada was developed to evaluate the on-ranch economics of adopting different grazing management strategies to improve riparian grazing capacity in natural grass rangeland. Under low-cost scenarios, there are positive economic incentives to adopt strategies to maintain riparian zones that already have high grazing capacity. However, riparian zones that have declined to moderate or low grazing capacity may require additional economic incentives to encourage ranches to adopt more costly management strategies to improve the grazing capacity. The economic incentives to adopt costly management strategies are highly sensitive to the size and shape of the riparian zone and rates of grazing capacity decline or improvement.     

A global perspective on the use, sales, exposure pathways, occurrence, fate and effects of veterinary antibiotics (VAs) in the environment

Veterinary antibiotics (VAs) are widely used in many countries worldwide to treat disease and protect the health of animals. They are also incorporated into animal feed to improve growth rate and feed efficiency. As antibiotics are poorly adsorbed in the gut of the animals, the majority is excreted unchanged in faeces and urine. Given that land application of animal waste as a supplement to fertilizer is often a common practice in many countries, there is a growing international concern about the potential impact of antibiotic residues on the environment. Frequent use of antibiotics has also raised concerns about increased antibiotic resistance of microorganisms. We have attempted in this paper to summarize the latest information available in the literature on the use, sales, exposure pathways, environmental occurrence, fate and effects of veterinary antibiotics in animal agriculture. The review has focused on four important groups of antibiotics (tylosin, tetracycline, sulfonamides and, to a lesser extent, bacitracin) giving a background on their chemical nature, fate processes, occurrence, and effects on plants, soil organisms and bacterial community. Recognising the importance and the growing debate, the issue of antibiotic resistance due to the frequent use of antibiotics in food-producing animals is also briefly covered. The final section highlights some unresolved questions and presents a way forward on issues requiring urgent attention.     

The valuation of wetland conservation in an urban/peri urban watershed

This study estimates the social benefits of wetland conservation in the Credit River watershed, located in an urban/peri urban area in Southern Ontario, Canada. A stated preference approach was employed to value wetland conservation programs which ranged from retaining the existing wetlands to restoring various levels of acres of wetlands over the 2009–2020 period. A total of 1,407 households completed an internet-based survey which presented trade-offs in binary choice scenarios framed as referenda. Responses were analyzed using various models, one of which was a latent class analysis which segmented respondents into three classes. This econometric approach uncovered significant preference heterogeneity for wetland conservation. Assignment of respondents to the classes suggested that about one-third of the sample was willing to pay small amounts to retain the existing wetlands. An additional third was willing to pay several hundred dollars a year for retention and small positive amounts for additional restoration. The final third were apparently willing to pay considerable sums for retention, but lesser amounts for additional restoration. However, further analysis revealed that respondents in this third class largely constituted yea-sayers. These results suggest caution in interpreting associated economic valuation estimates and highlight the importance of attempting to understand hypothetical bias in wetland and other such valuation studies.     

水环境中的微塑料：环境危害的本证和反证及主要研究空白

科学界与公众对微塑料(microplastics, MPs)的污染越来越重视。我们对文献进行了系统综述,以评价MPs对环境危害的证据权重。我们发现MPs在地表水和沉积物中均有存在。主要以珠状组成为主的碎片和纤维只是检测到的MP形态中的一小部分。检测出的MPs环境浓度很低,与能够影响生物分子水平上的毒性终点、以及摄食、繁殖、生长、组织炎症和死亡率的浓度有数量级的差别。MPs作为疏水性有机化合物的携带者使其在生物体中富集的作用很弱。现有数据表明MPs对环境造成的危害并不明显。实验室毒性实验中使用的MPs与环境中检测到的MPs在颗粒形态、尺寸范围和浓度等方面都有差距。研究中环境介质的选择少受关注。我们亟需开展更高质量的整体监测和更多实际环境效应的研究。只有这样,我们才能够全面表征MPs的环境风险,以便制定实施真正改善环境质量的管控措施。 精选自Emily E. Burns, Alistair B.A. Boxall. Microplastics in the aquatic environment: Evidence for or against adverse impacts and major knowledge gaps. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry,2018,37:2776–2796.
详情请见 https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4268