Contamination of hen manure with nine antibiotics in poultry farms in Ukraine

Abstract

The problem of processing, use and utilization of poultry manure contaminated with antibiotics remains unsolved not only Ukraine but around the world, and theatment and prevention of highly contagious infectious diseases among birds requires antibacterial medication use. By liquid chromatography, 293 hen manure samples of 12 Ukrainian industrial flocks of poultry farms were studied. The residual content of 9 antibiotics in the hen manure was found, including 38.2% of tetracycline preparations (doxycycline, oxytetracycline, tetracycline and chlortetracycline), fluoroquinolone (enrofloxacin and norfloxacin) including combinations of incompatible tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones, broad-spectrum penicillins (amoxicillin), fenicols (florfenicol), macrolides (tylosin) and one sulfanilamide preparation (sulfametazine). The most common antibiotics in hen manure of Ukrainian industrial flocks of poultry farms are the antibiotics of the tetracycline group, the main one being doxycycline. A high correlation was determined between the release of doxycycline with eggs and hen manure after the preparation was used perorally in preventive and therapeutic doses. Time of complete excretion of doxycycline from the hen body at the preventive dose (50 mg/L of water for 7 days) was 14 days for manure, 8 days for eggs, following its withdrawal, and at the therapeutic dose (100 mg/L of water for 7 days ) – 20 days for manure, and 9 days for eggs, following its withdrawal. The perspective of using the obtained data about the duration of excretion of doxycycline with hen manure consists in confirmation of the time of the antibiotic’s excretion with manure following its use for preventive or therapeutic purpose, which will help in controlling it as a source of environmental pollution. The time of doxycycline excretion from the body of hens with eggs and manure may be used practically by professionals in veterinary medicine in the case of prescribing or replacing antibiotics for treatment of infectious diseases of poultry to prevent the combination of incompatible preparations in the body and manure. The obtained experimental data may form the basis for the development of national regulations on the processing, usage and utilization of manure of hens under treatment with antibiotics.