Antibiotic contamination in animal manure, soil, and sewage sludge in Shenyang, northeast China

The occurrence and pollution characteristics of common antibiotics in manure, soil, and sewage sludge in Shenyang, the biggest city in northeastern China, were investigated. Commonly used antibiotics tetracyclines (TCs), including tetracycline, chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline, and deoxytetracycline; and sulfonamides (SAs), including sulfadiazine, sulfamerazine, sulfadimidine, and sulfamethoxazole, were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry via solid-phase extraction. Multiple antibiotics could be simultaneously measured in a single manure sample. The highest concentration of antibiotics in manure was 143.97 mg kg(-1) (chlortetracycline). There were no significant differences in concentrations of antibiotics between large-scale farms and individual household farms. The concentrations of TCs were significantly higher than those of SAs in manure and soils. However, the concentrations and detection frequencies of antibiotics in soils were significantly lower than in manure. The concentrations of antibiotics varied from 2.56 mu g kg(-1) of sulfadimidine to 1590.16 mu g kg(-1) of chlortetracycline, and the detection frequencies were 27.14-64.29 % for TCs and 5.71-28.57 % for SAs in soils. The concentrations of antibiotics in the vegetable field fertilized with manure were higher than those in the corn field not fertilized with manure. Various kinds of antibiotics were detected in sewage sludge, although concentrations were not high. Concentrations of antibiotics were higher in winter than in summer, The concentrations of antibiotics observed in this study were similar to those observed in other regions of China, but, in general, higher than those in other countries.