| Antibiotics are widely used in the livestock industry for preventing disease and improving feed efficiency. Many antibiotics are not completely absorbed by animals and they are excreted in urine and feces. When manure containing such antibiotics is used as a fertilizer, it can affect the degradation of pesticides since antibiotics inhibit the action of bacteria in soils or kill the bacteria. A ninety-day field lysimeter study was conducted to assess the effects of antibiotics on the degradation of three herbicides, atrazine, metribuzin and metolachlor, in a sandy soil. Poultry manures, respectively containing monensin, narasin and salinomycin, were used to investigate the effects of antibiotics on the degradation of herbicides, and were compared with a control treatment of manure without antibiotics. Herbicides were applied once to the soil surface of lysimeters at the locally recommended rates, followed by the application of poultry manures. The lysimeters were protected from natural rainfall, and the simulated rainfall was applied seven times. Both soil and leachate samples were collected and analyzed at predetermined time intervals. In the experiment, all the three herbicides were found to leach down through the soil profiles, and their concentrations decreased with soil depth and time. The statistical analysis of the results shows that all the three antibiotic treatments yielded a significantly slower dissipation of herbicide levels compared with the non-antibiotic treatment. The mass balance study reveals that the half lives of the three herbicides were significantly longer in the presence of antibiotics as compared to the control treatment without antibiotics. These results indicate that antibiotics in poultry manures can significantly slow down the degradation of the three herbicides in soil and therefore, increase the threat of herbicide pollution in the environment. |
