Antibiotic Concentrations in Liquid Swine Manure

CANADA - Two antimicrobials may remain in manure even after storage for the typical length of time of six months and may have environmental effects according to research from the University of Saskatchewan. The discovery is in a paper published by Kuchta and Cessna examining lincomycin and spectinomycin concentrations in liquid swine manure during storage.
calendar icon 25 September 2008
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Antimicrobials administered to livestock can be excreted up to 75 per cent in the faeces and urine. Liquid swine manure from confined animal feeding operations is generally retained in lagoon storage until it is applied as a nutrient source to crop and pasture land. Thus, the applied manure becomes a possible source of antimicrobials to aquatic ecosystems.

In the prairie region of Canada, lincomycin and spectinomycin are two antimicrobials that are frequently administered to pigs for prevention of post-weaning diarrhoea. In order to assess the potential for contamination of prairie wetlands, concentrations of both antimicrobials were monitored in liquid manure from a commercial-scale barn during a 5-week study, and their persistence during simulated manure storage was investigated.

LC-MS/MS analysis of manure extracts showed that concentrations of lincomycin and spectinomycin in the accumulating liquid manure at the end of the study were equivalent to 32 and 3 per cent, respectively, of the doses administered to weanling pigs in their feed.

In a laboratory study, in which lagoon storage was simulated at room temperature using fortified liquid manure, concentrations of both antimicrobials showed a rapid initial decrease during the first 6 days, followed by a much slower dissipation over a period of 5 months. Such persistence indicates that lincomycin and spectinomycin may be present in lagoon manure when applied as an amendment to agricultural land since many lagoons are emptied every six months (early spring and late fall).

Reference
Kuchta S.L. & Cessna A.J. 2008. Lincomycin and Spectinomycin Concentrations in Liquid Swine Manure and Their Persistence During Simulated Manure Storage. Toxicology Graduate Program, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol., 2008.

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