This study presents a simultaneous detection method to determine
the concentration of selected veterinary antibiotics including
five SAs, four TCs and one CY in animal wastewaters, animal farmeffluents,
pond waters and river waters collected from 11 cities and
counties in Jiangsu Province. Results showed that most of the selected
veterinary antibiotics were frequently detected in all samples
except one from river water. The TCs and the SAs showed
higher detected frequency in swine farms than poultry and dairy
farms. There was also a high spatial variation of different veterinary
antibiotics residue levels among the three sampling regions. That is,
the usage of SAs antibiotics is predominant in northern Jiangsu, CY,
SDZ, OTC and TC in central Jiangsu, and TCs in southern Jiangsu.
This research has demonstrated the animal wastewater is a major
pollution source of veterinary antibiotics. By applying the animal
wastewater to agricultural soils, the antibiotics might
contaminate the soils and surrounding water systems, thus posing
a serious threat to human and wildlife. Further research is needed
to illustrate the fate and transformation characteristics of these
veterinary antibiotics and their metabolites, as well as to assess
the potential risk of veterinary antibiotics and their metabolites
to the environment.