Antibiotic pollution from family animal farms is often neglected, but the waste from these farms usually caused more harm to the surroundings because arbitrary discharge without effective disposal. ...The pollution status and ecological risks of 45 veterinary antibiotics on 33 family animal farms in Dali city, Erhai Lake basin of China, were firstly delivered. The results showed that antibiotic contamination was prevalent in different environmental mediums (feed, manure, wastewater and soil) on these family farms. Manure had highest antibiotic levels among all the environmental mediums. Tetracyclines (TCs) usually had higher concentrations (ND-404.95 mg/kg) than the other classes, among which chlorotetracycline (CTC) was the dominant type. Among different animal species, target 13 pig farms had the highest antibiotic concentrations, the most total types and unique types of antibiotics, which were followed by target 11 chicken farms then target 9 cattle farms. The antibiotic densities of animal waste were calculated by per animal, which showed that pig waste presented high density; and family chicken farms were characterized by quinolone antibiotics (QAs) and macrolide antibiotics (MAs) pollution. For the antibiotic ecological risks in effluent water, oxytetracycline (OTC), CTC, ofloxacin (OFL), enrofloxacin (ENR), ciprofloxacin (CIP) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX2) exhibited much more toxic effects on algae. OTC and doxycycline (DXC) posed high risk for invertebrate; while no antibiotic caused high ecological risk for fish. Some antibiotics were quantitatively detected in the soil but no antibiotic posed obvious ecological risks on soils. However, the interaction of synergistic or antagonistic effects between different antibiotics should be brought to the forefront. This study gave some information of antibiotic pollution on family livestock farms, which indicated that animal waste from family farms was indeed an important pollution source of antibiotics for the environment.
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•Pollution of 45 antibiotics on family farms in Erhai Lake basin was firstly showed.•Animal antibiotic emission density was firstly calculated by per animal.•Ecological risks of effluent wastewater and soil were assessed on 33 family farms.•Family pig farm had more serious antibiotic pollution than chicken or cattle farm.•Family livestock waste was a great source of antibiotics for their surroundings.
Summarizes the main finding: The paper firstly focused on the pollution status and ecological risks of 45 veterinary antibiotics on 33 family livestock farms in Erhai Lake basin of China. The antibiotic source analysis, antibiotic density and ecological risks are the characteristics of this paper.
Although the studies on antibiotic contamination are common at present, large-scale sampling studies drawing highly representative conclusions are still scarce. This study conducted a comprehensive ...investigation on a total of 1183 samples from 70 livestock farms within a sensitive area around reservoir waters. 45 types of antibiotics belonging to 5 different classes were monitored. This is the first analysis to comprehensively investigate the density distribution, source apportionment, ecological and health risk of antibiotics in an entire area of sensitive waters. The results showed that the layer manure samples had highest detection rate of antibiotics (0.0 %–96.1 %, average value = 30.7 %) followed by pig manure samples. Oxytetracycline had the highest concentration of 712.16 mg/kg in a pig manure sample. Different from using antibiotic concentration as a proxy for pollution level, the spatial density was calculated by averaging antibiotic concentration to area and converting different livestock to pig equivalent. The spatial density of pig equivalent can more realistically reflect the pollution caused by different breeds of livestocks. It was shown that the pig farms contributed higher to total antibiotic density than the layer and cattle farms did. After assessed, a few antibiotics (oxytetracycline, chlorotetracycline and tetracycline) have posed high ecological risks to soil around the farms. However, none of them caused hazard quotient (HQ) risk and carcinogenic risk (CR) to human health in the water of reservoir. Children were more likely to be at hazard risk than adults. Antibiotic mass fluctuation rules were analyzed along the chain (feed → livestock waste → soil → surface water). Feed, livestock waste and soil had similar diversity, but the antibiotic concentrations continued to decline, implying the possible sources of antibiotic residues were similar. Thus, it is important to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use to prevent the potential long-term risk of antibiotics.
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•70 livestock farms, 45 antibiotics and 6 environmental media were investigated.•1183 samples were analyzed to derive the rule of representativeness.•Antibiotic density by pig equivalent was firstly used to assess spatial distribution.•Source apportionment was made for antibiotic transmission chain.•Human health risk was associated to veterinary antibiotic pollution.
Across the world, the growing embrace of anaerobic digestion for deriving energy from biogas presents substantial economic and environmental benefits. This strategic approach carries particular ...significance for Pakistan, which is actively striving to meet its renewable energy objectives. The study focuses on a comprehensive examination of the spatial distribution of biogas potential originating from livestock farm manure in the southern areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This factor plays a pivotal role in ascertaining the best location and economic feasibility of a bioenergy facility. The study employs a spatial analysis algorithm to estimate biogas production. By integrating livestock data, manure production metrics, and collection statistics, the algorithm provides a high-resolution assessment at 1 km interval. The analysis unveil a biogas potential of 1.40 billion cubic meters of bio-methane sourced from manure. District D.I.Khan emerges as the leading producer, generating 201.40 million cubic meters of bio-methane. Several maps illustrate optimal sites and potential capacities for biogas facilities utilizing manure. The study proposes the practicality of establishing 868 biogas plants within the surveyed geographic region. Collectively, these plants would generate a substantial 909.34 Megawatt electrical (Mwe), while individual capacities spanning from 120 Kilowatt electrical (Kwe) to an impressive 997 KWe. These findings offer a clear path for strategically siting biogas plants, a crucial component of the global battle against climate change. Moreover, the findings of this study have played a significant role in shaping guidelines aimed at mitigating methane emissions, promoting the generation of renewable energy, and advocating for sustainable waste management practices. These guidelines serve as invaluable tools for climate mitigation and adaptation endeavors.
Industrial livestock farms emit greenhouse gases from various sources, including the milking parlor, the livestock storage environment, and the mass of manure stored. This research aims to reduce the ...emissions produced by large industrial livestock farms by implementing several hybrid renewable energy systems. To this end, various scenarios are simulated for a single case study, and the results are then generalized to all farms in the country. A novel approach is used in this study to cover a country's industrial livestock farms with a comprehensive plan. The Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER) Pro software was employed to simulate and analyze energy configurations.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that both primary and deferred loads are considered. Throughout the project's duration, a multi-year sensitivity analysis is conducted to determine the reliability of the obtained results. The degradation of photovoltaic panels, the price of diesel fuel, the electrical load, the inflation rate, and the discount rate are considered. The results indicate that by utilizing a solar/biogas/diesel/battery system while remaining connected to the grid, an average of 778 tons of carbon emissions per year can be avoided at a net present cost of $2.53m and an Cost of Energy of 0.083 $/kWh. This calculation was made by utilizing the biomass produced by all industrial livestock farms in a country to meet its energy needs, where 665,755 tons of carbon emissions could be avoided (average amount of 176.15 kg of CO2 per animal). Additionally, the research demonstrates that as solar panels degrade and diesel prices rise, biogas consumption increases by 7%, and diesel consumption decreases by 14% in the optimal scenario.
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Mixed farming systems are gaining interest both as a risk management strategy and to apply agroecological principles. This study set out to assess the sustainability of mixed systems compared to ...their specialized counterparts. The Orfee bioeconomic farm model was used to simulate three mixed farms: beef and dairy, beef and sheep, and cash crop and beef, under 1990-2017 prices and policies in France. Several sustainability criteria were computed at two scales (i) aggregated farm level, to assess whether mixed farms with several integrated enterprises performed better than if these enterprises were managed in specialized farms, and (ii) unit of product or labour to assess whether a product was produced more sustainably and a worker obtained higher and more stable income in a mixed farm. We found that mixed farms had less work peaks, lower global warming potentials and nitrogen balances, lower total production costs, higher and more stable net incomes than if their enterprises were managed in two specialized farms. However, profitability and income variability of the mixed farms were not better than the best performing specialized farm. The consumption of concentrate feed decreased in the mixed livestock farms but increased in the beef-crop farm that degraded feed-food competition.
Cow dung is the main source of producing methane, as one of the greenhouse gases. To decrease this pollution, cow dung can be transformed into biogas, and consequently, the produced biogas can be ...used as a fuel for electrical generators. This problem is addressed in the so far researches without proposing the appropriate mathematical models. In this paper, the optimal sizing problem of the biogas-based generators (BGs) is formulated for a livestock farm by modeling the anaerobic digester process and the gas storage tank. To protect the system operator's decisions against the uncertainty of the cow dung, the proposed model is reformulated as a risk-based model using the information gap decision theory. The obtained capacity of the BG and the storage tank for a livestock farm with 2000 cows are 433.24 kW and 628.056 m3, respectively. Also, the designed system prevents releasing approximately 522-ton pollution. The results show the appropriate performance of the system operator to use the produced gas to be directly sent to the BG and/or to charge the storage tank. The results show that with increasing the risk-aversion parameter, the capacity of the BG and the storage tank decrease which leads to decreasing the total profit.
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•The optimal sizing problem of the biogas-based generators is formulated.•The anaerobic digester process and the gas storage tank are also modeled.•Model is reformulated as a risk-based model using information gap decision theory.•The obtained capacity of the BG and the storage tank are 433.24 kW and 628.056 m3.•The designed system prevents releasing approximately 522-ton pollution.
Swine farms contaminated the surrounding environment through manure application and biogas slurry irrigation, hence causing the wide residual of multiple antimicrobial drugs (ADs) and their ...transformation products (TPs). This study performed target, suspect, and nontarget screening methods to comprehensively investigate the pollution profiles of ADs in a typical swine farm, and characterize the potential transformed pathway of TPs and distinguish specific reactions of different catalog of ADs. Samples of fresh feces, compost, biogas slurry, topsoil, column soil, groundwater and plants were analyzed using the database containing 98 target analytes, 679 suspected parent ADs, and ∼ 107 TPs. In total, 29 ADs were quantitively detected, and tetracyclines (TCs) were mostly frequently detected ADs with the concentrations up to 4251 ng/g in topsoil. Soil column investigation revealed that doxycycline (DOX) and tetracycline (TC) in soil could migrate to depths of approximately 1 m in soil. Suspect screening identified 75 parent ADs, with 10 being reported for the first time in environmental media. Semi-quantification of ADs revealed that one of the less-concerned ADs, clinafloxacin, was detected to exceed 5000 ng/L in biogas slurry, suggesting that significant attentions should be paid to these less-concerned ADs. Moreover, 314 TPs was identified, and most of them were found to undergo microbial/enzymatic metabolism pathways. Overall, our study displays a comprehensive overview of ADs and their TPs in swine farming environments, and provides an inventory of crucial list that worthy of concern. The results emphasize the need to quantify the levels and distribution of previously overlooked ADs and their TPs in livestock farms.
Feces in livestock farms is a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), which can disseminate into surrounding soil and air, bringing risks to human health. In this study, seasonal ...dissemination of ARGs in a livestock farm and implications for human exposure was explored. The experimental results showed that ARGs abundance basically ranked as feces > soil > air, and significant seasonal dependence was observed. The total ARGs in pig feces was relatively higher in autumn (109.7 copies g−1) and winter (1010.0 copies g−1), and lower in summer (105.0 copies g−1). Similarly, the lowest total ARGs in soil and air were also observed in summer. There were correlations among ARGs, integron intI1, and bacterial community. Total organic carbon was an important factor affecting ARGs distribution in the feces, and pH and moisture content significantly affected soil ARGs. The daily intakes of integron intI1 and ARGs from air were 10°.5 copies h−1 and 102.3 copies h−1 for human exposure, respectively. Pseudomonas was a potential pathogenic host of blaTEM-1 in feces, Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter were potential pathogenic hosts of multiple ARGs in soil, while ARGs in air did not migrate into pathogens.
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•Seasonal dissemination of ARGs in livestock farm and health risk is explored.•The lowest ARGs in feces, soil, and air are detected in summer, but highest in winter.•TOC dominates ARGs abundance in feces, pH and moisture content affect soil ARGs.•Daily intakes of intI1 and ARGs from air are calculated based on human exposure.•Potential pathogenic hosts of ARGs in feces, soil, and air are identified.
•Split-ring resonator with Ag@MoS2 enables wireless amine detection with high sensitivity.•Wireless sensors show high measurement and disturbance tolerance by recognizing resonant frequency ...shifts.•Wireless sensors show reliable ammonia detection for meat spoilage and livestock management.
Safety associated with ammonia requires the development of gas sensors for various applications, including food spoilage detection and livestock farming management. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a promising technology to fabricate a wireless gas sensor for remote concentration readouts. However, most of the reported RFID-enabled gas sensors determined the analyte concentration by using the reflection coefficient (S11) of sensor tag as an indicator, which was prone to be disturbed by measurement variations and external disturbances. Herein, we reported a wireless gas sensor with high tolerance to measurement variations through recognizing the resonant frequency (f) of sensor tag, enabling reliable detection of ammonia and various biogenic amines in real time. Compared with other conducting 2D materials, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) exhibits tunable semiconducting properties and high specific surface area, which can serve a promising candidate for RFID-based gas sensors. By immobilizing silver nanoparticles-decorated molybdenum disulfide nanosheets (Ag@MoS2) on a nested split-ring resonator (SRR), the SRR sensor tag exhibited significant f downshifts at increasing ammonia concentrations, featuring with high sensitivity to ammonia (0.097 ppm–1, based on relative f changes), low detection limit (<1 ppm), and fast response time. Furthermore, our wireless gas sensor enables early detection of biogenic amines from meat spoilage and animal excrements. Finally, we installed our wireless sensors at a poultry farm with chicken flock>10,000 to provide reliable readouts of localized concentrations of biogenic amines.
•Swine farm groundwater carried abundant antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs).•Metagenome- and culture-based methods tracked the source of groundwater-borne ARGs.•Bacterial migration and horizontal ...gene transfer may promote ARG spread.•Pathogens were the important ARG hosts in groundwater.•Groundwater-borne ARGs might be transferred from groundwater to humans.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are prevalent in various environments on livestock farms, including livestock waste, soil, and groundwater. Contamination of groundwater by ARB and ARGs in livestock farms is a growing concern as it may have potentially huge risks to human health. However, the source of groundwater-borne ARB and ARGs in animal farms remains largely unknown. In this study, different types of samples including groundwater and its potential contamination sources from aboveground (pig feces, wastewater, and soil) from both working and abandoned swine feedlots in southern China were collected and subjected to metagenomic sequencing and ARB isolation. The source tracking based on metagenomic analysis revealed that 56–95 % of ARGs in groundwater was attributable to aboveground sources. Using metagenomic assembly, we found that 45 ARGs predominantly conferring resistance to aminoglycosides, sulfonamides, and tetracyclines could be transferred from the aboveground sources to groundwater, mostly through plasmid-mediated horizontal gene transfer. Furthermore, the full-length nucleotide sequences of sul1, tetA, and TEM-1 detected in ARB isolates exhibited the close evolutionary relationships between aboveground sources and groundwater. Some isolated strains of antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas spp. from aboveground sources and groundwater had the high similarity (average nucleotide identity > 99 %). Notably, the groundwater-borne ARGs were identified as mainly carried by bacterial pathogens, potentially posing risks to human and animal health. Overall, this study underscores the dissemination of ARGs from aboveground sources to groundwater in animal farms and associated risks.
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