The Reference Manure Concept for Transformation Tests of Veterinary Medicines and Biocides in Liquid Manure

摘要

Veterinary medicines and biocides are frequently applied in animal houses of livestock husbandry. Due to these application patterns, they reach liquid manure. So far these substances are not transformed during manure storage, they enter soil by the application of manure as organic fertilizer. Therefore, biodegradability of veterinary medicines and biocides in manure is in the focus of regulatory procedures of environmental risk assessment. Since the representative and reproducible sampling of manures from high volume tanks is considered impossible due to high matrix variabilities, the reference manure concept was developed to utilize liquid bovine and pig manures for reproducible laboratory testing. Accordingly, excrement samples of cattle and pigs individually kept at experimental and conventional animal houses were taken. Tap water was added to matrix characterized excrements in order to prepare bovine and pig reference manures of 10 and 5% dry substance contents, respectively. Subsequently, the long-term transformation of selected ~(14)C-labeled test substances was investigated under strictly anaerobic conditions. The application of different batches of bovine or pig reference manures indicated that extrapolation of transformation rates within the same animal species was possible. However, results cannot be transferred from bovine to pig manure because of substance specific interactions with the different manure matrices. The dependency of metabolic dynamics on different dry substance contents (2.5,5,10%) was additionally investigated in both manure matrices. These tests clearly showed that the dry substance content of the reference manure is one of the most relevant factors affecting the transformation of veterinary medicines and biocides. In contrast to highly variable tank manures, the reference manure concept allows for the exact adjustment of this parameter to guarantee reproducible laboratory testing.