Veterinary antibiotics and hormones in water from application of pig slurry to soil

Although the use of liquid waste from piggeries as agricultural fertilizer is common practice, problems arise from contamination of water by chemical compounds. This paper reports on the presence of three hormones and six veterinary antibiotics in water of the surface runoff and drainage flow from volumetric lysimeters to which pig slurry was applied, and which had been planted with cereals, horticultural crops and permanent pasture. High-efficiency liquid chromatography was used for chemical analysis of soil water following two applications of liquid pig slurry. Concentrations of the hormones and antibiotics found were between 4.6 and 1350.8 ng L−1, and were detectable up to the ninth day after the second application of manure. The presence of different crops did not influence the occurrence of the analytes.