RESUMEN

Livestock production is a major source of pharmaceutical emissions to the environment. The current scientific discourse focuses on measuring and modeling emissions as well as assessing their risks. Although several studies corroborate the severity of pharmaceutical pollution resulting from livestock farming, differences in pollution between livestock types and production systems are largely unknown. In fact, there is no comprehensive analysis of factors influencing pharmaceutical use-the emission's source-in the diverse production systems. To address these knowledge gaps, we developed a framework to investigate pharmaceutical pollution from different livestock production systems and applied it in a first pilot assessment to compare pollution from organic and conventional cattle, pig, and chicken production systems on selected indicator substances, covering antibiotics, antiparasitics, hormones, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Given the lack of statistics, for this article we retrieved novel qualitative information about influential factors for pharmaceutical use and pollution from expert interviews and combined this with quantitative data on, among other factors, the environmental behavior of specific substances from the literature. Our analysis reveals that factors across a pharmaceutical's entire life cycle influence pollution. However, not all factors are livestock type or production-system dependent. The pilot assessment furthermore reveals that differences in pollution potential between conventional and organic production exist, but for antibiotics, NSAIDs, and partially for antiparasitics, some factors lead to greater pollution potential in conventional systems, and others in organic systems. For hormones, we identified a comparatively greater pollution potential from conventional systems. Among the indicator substances, the assessment over the entire pharmaceutical life cycle illustrates that flubendazole in broiler production has the greatest per unit impact. The framework and its application in the pilot assessment generated insights useful to identifying which substances, livestock types, production systems, or the combination thereof have great or little pollution potential, informing more sustainable agricultural management practices. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2023;19:1495-1509. © 2023 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

Asunto(s)

Pollos , Ganado , Animales , Bovinos , Porcinos , Agricultura/métodos , Contaminación del Agua , Hormonas , Antibacterianos , Antiinflamatorios no Esteroideos , Antiparasitarios , Preparaciones Farmacéuticas

RESUMEN

Water pollution by veterinary antibiotics (VAs) resulting from livestock production is associated with severe environmental and human health risks. While upward trends in global animal product consumption signal that these risks might exacerbate toward the future, VA related water pollution is currently insufficiently understood. To increase this understanding, the present research assesses processes influencing VA pollution from VA administration to their discharge into freshwater bodies, using an integrated modelling approach (IMA). For the VAs amoxicillin, doxycycline, oxytetracycline, sulfamethazine, and tetracycline we estimate loads administered to livestock, excretion, degradation during manure storage, fate in soil and transport to surface water. Fate and transport are modelled using the VA transport model (VANTOM), which is fed with estimates from the Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment (PESERA). The grey water footprint (GWF) is used to indicate the severity of water pollution in volumetric terms by combining VA loads and predicted no effect concentrations. We apply our approach to the German-Dutch Vecht river catchment, which is characterized by high livestock densities. Results show a VA mass load decrease larger than 99% for all substances under investigation, from their administration to surface water emission. Due to metabolization in the body, degradation during manure storage and degradation in soil, VA loads are reduced by 45%, 80% and 90% on average, respectively. While amoxicillin and sulfamethazine dissipate quickly after field application, significant fractions of doxycycline, oxytetracycline and tetracycline accumulate in the soil. The overall Vecht catchment's GWF is estimated at 250,000 m3 yr-1, resulting from doxycycline (81% and 19% contribution from the German and Dutch catchment part respectively). Uncertainty ranges of several orders of magnitude, as well as several remaining limitations to the presented IMA, underscore the importance to further develop and refine the approach.

Asunto(s)

Oxitetraciclina , Contaminantes del Suelo , Animales , Antibacterianos/análisis , Humanos , Estiércol , Suelo , Contaminantes del Suelo/análisis , Agua

RESUMEN

Water pollution by pharmaceuticals is widespread, causing both environmental and human health risks. We assess pharmaceutical water pollution from human and veterinary pharmaceuticals at three geographical levels: global, national (considering Germany and the Netherlands) and catchment level (with a case study for the Vecht catchment shared by Germany and the Netherlands). The grey water footprint (GWF), a measure of water pollution in volumetric terms, is estimated from pharmaceutical loads entering the aquatic environment, considering different pollutant sources and pathways. We study different substances depending on data availability, which varies across geographical levels. Results show a global per capita GWF of 1900 m3 yr-1 resulting from human consumption of ciprofloxacin. The largest GWFs in both Germany and the Netherlands were found for ethinylestradiol for human and amoxicillin for veterinary use. The estimated per capita GWF from human use of ethinylestradiol is 2300 m3 yr-1 for Germany and 11,300 m3 yr-1 for the Netherlands. The per capita GWFs of German and Dutch consumers of animal products are 12,900 and 10,600 m3 yr-1, respectively. For the Vecht catchment, we estimate the water pollution level per sub-catchment by comparing the GWF to available runoff, which enables us to identify geographic hotspots. In the basin as a whole, GWFs from human and veterinary pharmaceuticals both exceed available runoff. At all levels, pharmaceutical water pollution substantially adds to earlier water footprint studies that excluded this type of pollution, which demonstrates the importance to include pharmaceutics in water footprint studies.