Migration and degradation of swine farm tetracyclines at the river catchment scale: Can the multi-pond system mitigate pollution risk to receiving rivers?

- The occurrence and migration of TCs were investigated at the catchment scale.
- TCs decayed exponentially in paddy soil, while linearly in mixed canal and sewer.
- The attenuation of the TCs in the sewer was relatively faster than in the paddy soil.
- TCs were easily deposited in water-sediment systems and sewage ponds.
- Multi-ponds provide a natural and efficient way to mitigate TC pollution risk to rivers.

The study investigated the degradation behaviors of swine farm tetracyclines (TCs) at a catchment scale and explored whether multi-pond systems could be beneficial to the interception of TCs so as to reduce the pollution risk to receiving rivers. The occurrence and migration of 12 kinds of tetracycline antibiotics, including their degradation products, were studied in four swine farms of the Meijiang River basin in China. The migration paths of the TCs were examined through sampling and analyzing the soil and/or sediment at different points along the swine wastewater outlet, which included sewer, sewage pond, mixed-canal (stream and sewage), farmland (paddy and upland soil) and finally the river. TC concentrations of all collected samples were obtained by solid phase extraction followed by measurement with high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. The results showed that sediment TC concentrations varied greatly in different swine farms, from mg·kg−1 to μg·kg−1 levels. TCs had different decay patterns along different migration paths, such that TCs decayed exponentially in paddy soil, while linearly in sewer and mixed canal. The concentrations of TCs and their degradation products decreased in the order: sewer sediment > sewage pond sediment > mixed-canal sediment > paddy soil > upland soil, indicating that TCs tend to be more easily intercepted and accumulated in water-sediment systems such as ponds. Therefore, the multi-pond system could be an effective way to prevent TCs from migrating into rivers. These results provided essential information for contamination control of antibiotics in aquatic environments.

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