Mobility of veterinary drugs in soil with application of manure compost

Sulfonamides and tetracyclines are pharmaceuticals widely used to treat human and animal diseases. They are of considerable concern in Korea because of the potential risk of residues in aquatic and terrestrial environments. This study investigated the mobility of veterinary drugs in the soil column with the application of manure compost to assess the risk of groundwater contamination by leaching in the Korean agricultural environment. The degree of sulfonamides and tetracyclines mobility, measured by the concentration of leachates from silty loam soil for 9 days, was observed being on the first day of this study, in the order sulfathiazole, sulfamethazine > sulfamethoxazole > chlortetracycline > oxytetracycline, and the sulfonamides concentrations were about ten times higher than the tetracyclines concentrations with continuous leaching. The results indicate that sulfonamides pose a high risk of ground and surface water contamination and tetracyclines have the potential to persist in soils with bioactive epimers.