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Antibiotics and microplastics in manure and surrounding soil of farms in the Loess Plateau: Occurrence and correlation
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Researchers found that both antibiotics and microplastics were present simultaneously in livestock manure and surrounding farmland soil across the Loess Plateau in China. Tetracycline antibiotics were the most common, and microplastic concentrations reached up to 88,000 particles per kilogram in manure. Using manure as fertilizer transfers both contaminants to cropland, creating a pathway for antibiotics and microplastics to enter the food chain through crops grown in contaminated soil.
The wide use of animal manure in farmland operations is a source of soil nutrients. However, the return of manure affected antibiotics and microplastics in the soil, thus the potential ecological risks cannot be overlooked. This study investigated the distribution of different antibiotics and microplastics and their correlation. It was found that multiple classes of veterinary antibiotics and microplastics could be detected simultaneously in most manure and soil. In manure, the average concentration of tetracycline antibiotics was higher than fluoroquinolones and sulfonamides. A much lower concentration of antibiotics was found in the soil samples relative to manure. The abundance of microplastics ranged from 21,333 to 88,333 n/kg in manure, and the average abundance was 50,583 ± 24,318 n/kg. The average abundance was 3056 ± 1746 n/kg in the soil. It confirmed that applying organic fertilizer to agricultural soil and the application of plastic mulch in farmlands introduced microplastics. Moreover, microplastics were found to be significantly correlated with antibiotics (r = 0.698, p < 0.001). The correlation between microplastics and antibiotics in soil was significantly weaker than that in manure. Farms could be the hotspot for the co-spread of microplastics and antibiotics. These findings highlighted the co-occurrence of antibiotics and microplastics in agricultural environments.
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