News » Fate of pharmaceuticals in manure processing

Twelve pharmaceuticals were detected in pig manure and slaughterhousesludge in Catalunya, Spain. All twelve were found in manure, atconcentrations up to 6600 ?g/kg in the solid fraction (for doxycycline, atetracycline antibiotic used to treat pneumonia, Lyme disease, cholera?), and most were found in the slaughterhouse waste. Both these 12pharmaceuticals and five ARG (antibiotic resistance genes) were measuredthrough a processing plant handling c. 7 000 t/y of manure and11 000 t/y slaughterhouse sludge with an anaerobic digester (mesophilic,75-80 days, producing biogas), followed by solid/liquid separation(centrifuge) and finally reverse osmosis (RO) of the liquid digestate.Mass balances for the pharmaceuticals were calculated based on measuredconcentrations and flows. Results are complex, in that for someperiods/substances the flow of pharmaceuticals out of the anaerobicdigester seems to be higher than that in the inlet (negative removal). This could be explained by several factors, such as the collection ofthe samples within the same day and to some analytical constraints (i.e.matrix effects). Overall, the anaerobic digester very significantlyremoved macrolide antibiotics (tilmicosin, tylosin), somewhat removedflubendazole and flunixin, but did not generally remove (except in somespecific cases) lincomycin, fluoroquinolone or tetracycline antibiotics.In solid/liquid separation, most of the pharmaceuticals were retainedin the solid fraction (except lincomycin and tiamulin), with sorptionnot being correlated to logK_ow values. The RO membranehowever generally removed up to 90% of the pharmaceuticals. For ARGs,reduction was also limited in the anaerobic digester, little or noreduction in solid/liquid separation and again significant reductionthrough the RO membrane.

?Fate of pharmaceuticals and antibiotic resistance genes in a full-scaleon-farm livestock waste treatment plant?, M. Gros et al., Journal ofHazardous Materials 378 (2019) 120716, DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.05.109

Source: https://mailchi.mp/phosphorusplatform/espp-enews-trial-577222?e=b7935c5729.