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Microplastic-mediated antibiotic migration and bioaccumulation in aquaculture: Implications for seafood safety
Summary
This study examined whether microplastics in aquaculture water absorb antibiotics and then increase the amount of those drugs that accumulate in shrimp tissue, finding that shrimp exposed to antibiotic-loaded polyethylene and polypropylene microplastics had higher antibiotic concentrations in their bodies than shrimp exposed to antibiotics alone. Smaller microplastic particles adsorbed less antibiotic, and aged plastics bound more. The findings suggest that microplastics in fish farms create an indirect pathway for antibiotic accumulation in seafood beyond what direct water exposure would produce.
Microplastics (MPs) in aquaculture may vector antibiotics (ATBs), posing food-safety risks. We quantified the adsorption of enrofloxacin (ENR) and sulfadiazine (SDZ) onto polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) MPs, examining the effects of pH, salinity, particle size, aging, and co-solutes. Adsorption followed pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherms, with maxima of 30.3 mg/g (PE-ENR) and 32.1 mg/g (PP-ENR). Spectroscopy and density functional theory showed adsorption is primarily driven by hydrophobic, electrostatic, and van der Waals forces. Aging increased adsorption by up to 14.6%, while smaller particle size negatively correlated with adsorption. SERS confirmed in situ ATB adsorption, and Raman detection revealed fewer MPs in shrimp tissue (14.3 ± 4.0 particles/g) than in water (138.0 ± 16.4 particles/L). Notably, ENR bioaccumulated more in MPs-exposed shrimp (16.4 μg/kg) compared to the ENR-only group (12.2 μg/kg). These results define a size-dependent MP-ATB-organism transport pathway with implications for seafood safety and analytical monitoring.