**12. Antibiotics in rivers and sea**

*Emerging Contaminants*

otic treatment.

than expected.

persistence in soil.

**11. Antibiotics in crops plants**

antibiotics [44], and veterinary antibiotics [78].

**10. Antibiotics in soil**

the use of antibiotics and having led to only a few antibiotics being licensed for use in aquaculture and preventing the high proportions of antibiotic-resistant bacteria which still persist in sediments and farm surroundings and suggesting the implementation of rearing practices that reduce the level of stress from fish larvae to adult, which could reduce the likelihood of infections requiring antibi-

Probably one of the main concerns about antibiotic contamination is their accumulation in soil, by the effect on resistant bacteria and direct consequence in human and animal health. Likely the easier indirect antibiotic detection is to calculate the concentration in crops [73, 74], as was mentioned by Christou et al. [25] reporting antibiotics in tomatoes from the soil. This work elaborated during three years shows that the accumulation of DCF, SMX, and TMP in the soil detected by MeOH-NaOH solution and Chromatography MS/MS, The results show an imminent physical translocation as we shown in **Figure 1**, and show great variability in the accumulation of the three antibiotics during those 3 years, with increases or decreases depending on the irrigation using wastewater and depending on the duration of irrigation and the origin of the wastewater applied. Other authors monitoring sulfonamides and tetracyclines over 18 years from an agricultural field site in Lower Saxony, Germany [75]. SAs and TCs are largely fixed in the upper soil layer. The analysis showed a strong decrease below the sampling depth of 30 cm which is the depth of the plow and below other antibiotics such as SG and SMZ were detected up to 90 cm, TC was shown to persist >100 μg/kg in topsoil, however this antibiotic no leachate in deeper soil segments or groundwater. They conclude that some SAs disappeared, but other veterinary antibiotics are even more persistent

In Kenia, Africa Yang et al. [76] analyzed four soils in the suburban area of Narok. Over 12 antibiotics analyzed they found that SMX, SMZ, OTC, and ENR were the major antibiotics that polluted those soils among 12 antibiotics monitored and the highest average value was for Narok 43,64 μg/kg dry weight, and the other three average values were Mai Mahiu 26.70 μg/kg dry weight, Juja 24.41 μg/kg dry weight, and Mount Suswa Conservancy 12,21 μg/kg dry weight. They advise more attention to reduce the misuse of SAs. Pan and Chu [27], investigated TC, NOR, SM2, CAP, Erythromycin (EM), antibiotics in agricultural soils, and was probably the first study. The Persistence and environmental risk profile of the five antibiotics were TC > NOR>EM > CAP>SM2, but "the study suggests that the adsorption of antibiotics in soil depends on the physicochemical properties of both antibiotics and soil". Probably this study was the first to develop a model for predict antibiotic

Antibiotics for plants were used since the 1950s to control certain bacterial diseases the most common used are oxytetracycline and streptomycin. In the United State antibiotics for plants represent 0,5% of total antibiotics used in this country. However, the emergence of antibiotic resistance of *Xanthomonas campestris*, *Erwinia amylovora*, and *Pseudomonas* spp., and has blocked the control of their diseases [77]. Then plants could pick up three kinds of antibiotics: antibiotics plants, human

**174**

Finally, we arrive at the climax where all the antibiotics will finally be deposited if their degradation does not occur or if the increase of antibiotics continues its course as if such substances do not represent a risk for all the species in nature that has learned to fight diseases with evolution as antibiotic resistance [81]. Rivers and the sea are the final deposits of antibiotics and or following studies and many others that we cannot all cite shown that biodegradation, degradation, and bioaccumulation can once again put the health of the planet at risk.

The previous data show that antibiotics degradation is not totally in agreement with antibiotics in soils, farms, and WWTPs. We know today the antibiotic loads in pristine rivers as Amazona, Niger, Congo, Zambezi, Lena, Amour, and Yenisei carrying low concentrations of antibiotics, but the remaining rivers of the worldwide receive greater loads of antibiotics [41, 73, 82]. We could again make the list of antibiotics and see that they follow the same comparison of antibiotics and all effluents from WWTPs [81], the main technical solution will be the degradation of antibiotics before reach the river stream. About this concern, some researchers begin to develop this challenge [48, 83, 84].

As Zang et al., [85], mentioned," the ocean is an important sink of land-based pollutants", and exactly as crop plants allow detection of antibiotics, marine food will be the best way to follows the study of bioaccumulation of antibiotics [86, 87]. Liu et al. [86], found 9 SAs, TMP, 5 FQ, and 4 ML, which were in gill, muscle, kidney, and liver tissues of seven wild fish species collected from Laizhou Bay, North China. As previous famous works with mercury accumulation of marine fish, now there are antibiotics reports in tissue fish in higher concentrations than aquaculture fish.

Alga will be another antibiotic "*bio-accumulator*" to detect antibiotics in rivers and sea. Seoane et al. [88] developed an experimental evaluation of chloramphenicol (CHL), florfenicol (FLO), and oxytetracycline (OTC) in marine microalga *Tetraselmis suecica*, showing that three antibiotics inhibited the growth after 96 h with IC50. Finally, we think that in the future it will be necessary to look for antibiotics in river and sea sediments. But these first works are already beginning to fill the research data worldwide and to conclude without doubts that antibiotics are the "new emergent pollutants of Earth". Pioneer work from Fernandes et al., [89] in Portugal found azithromycin in Leça river at 2819 ng/g in water but in sediments at 43,2 ng/g.

#### **13. Strategies to change all previous practices, challenges, and hopes**

**Table 2** is not a summary of this review of all articles. It is a simple exercise to verify that perhaps no antibiotic has disappeared from industrial production and it generates a contradictory taste associated with the fact that pharmaceutical companies are discouraged from manufacturing new antibiotics, but the sale and


**177**

**Type** **In agricultural practices in farms**

Azoles Macrolides Sulfonamides Diaminopyrimidines

Tetracyclines Cephalosporins (second generation)

β-lactams Amphenicols Lincosamides

Quinolones Aminoglycosides

Peptides Ionophores Peptidomimetics

Diaminopyrimidines

Cephalosporins

**Hospital**

β-lactams Sulfonamides Tetracyclines Aminoglycosides

Fluoroquinolones

Cephalosporins

Cephamycin

(second-generation)

Azoles Macrolides Diaminopyrimidines

Cephalosporins (second generation)

streptomycin

ciprofloxacin;

cefotaxime;

cefoxitin

metronidazole

erythromycin

trimethoprim

cefuroxime

cefuroxime

chloramphenicol

lincomycin

ofloxacin, pefloxacin, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, difloxacin, marbofloxacin

Streptomycin, apramycin, kanamycin, spectinomycin

virginiamycin

monensin

bacitracin

trimethoprim

ceftiofur, cefquinom

ampicillin amoxicillin

streptomycin; sulfamethoxazole

tetracycline, oxytetracycline chlortetracycline and doxycycline

[39]

[44]

trimethoprim tetracycline, oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline, doxycycline

ampicillin, amoxicillin, benzylpenicillin, cloxacilin, dicloxacillin, oxacillin

metronidazole erythromycin¸ norfloxacin, tylosin, spiramycin

sulfamethoxazole, Sulfadiazine: sulfamethazine, sulfamethoxazol sulphathiazole sulfaguanidine, sulfanilamide, sulfamonomethoxine, sulfamerazine, sulfachlorpyridazine, sulphadimethoxine, sulphadimidine, sulfapyridine

**Antibiotic**

**References**

[25] [44] [49–54] [60] [78]

*Pharmaceutical Antibiotics at a Significant Level in Nature: From Hospitals, Livestock…*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95368*


*Pharmaceutical Antibiotics at a Significant Level in Nature: From Hospitals, Livestock… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95368*

*Emerging Contaminants*

**References**

[27]

[57]

[74]

[76]

[79]

[58]

[70]

[72]

**176**

**Type** **Agricultural soil**

Tetracyclines Fluoroquinolones

Sulfonamides

Macrolides Amphenicols **Aquaculture**

Sulfonamides Tetracyclines Fluoroquinolones

Macrolides Amphenicols Aminoglycosides

Combination of trimethoprim and

sulfamethoxazole

Sulfonamide/Diaminopyridine

**Crops**

Tetracyclines Sulfonamides Diaminopyrimidines

Macrolides

Azoles Cephalosporins

β-lactams Fluoroquinolones

Aminoglycosides

antibiotics of fungal origin

sulfadimethoxine/ormetoprim

Tetracycline, oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline, doxycycline

sulfamethoxazole

trimethoprim

erythromycin

metronidazole

Cefuroxime, second generation

ampicillin, amoxicillin

ciprofloxacin (CIP); norfloxacin (NOR)

blasticidin S, validamycin

strobilurin, odemansins.

[28]

[58]

[74]

[79]

[80]

erythromycin

chloramphenicol

sulfamethoxazole, sulfaquinoxaline

oxytetracycline

*erythromycin-H*

*O*2 chloramphenicol, florphenicol,

streptomycin

cotrimoxazole

norfloxacin, ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, pefloxacin

**Antibiotic** tetracycline, doxycycline, oxytetracycline

ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, enrofloxacin

sulfadimethoxine, sulfamethazine, sulfamethizole, sulfamerazine, sulfamethoxazole, sulfadiazine


**179**

**Type** **Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs)**

Quinolones Sulfonamides Diaminopyrimidines

Tetracyclines

β-lactams Cephalosporins (second generation)

Macrolides

Azoles **Veterinary and human antibiotics**

Β-lactams Macrolides Aminoglycosides

Fluoroquinolones

Tetracyclines Streptogramins

Glycopeptide

Phenicol Cephalosporins

Polypeptides Pleuromultilin

**Foods**

Fluoroquinolones

β-lactams Macrolides

**Table 2.**

*Some selected antibiotics in the practices were reviewed*

ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin

sulfamethoxazol

trimethoprim tetracycline, oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline, doxycycline

ampicillin, amoxicillin

cefuroxime

erythromycin

metronidazole

emoxycilin tylosin, azithromycin

neomycin, gentamycin

enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, ofloxacin

oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline

virginiamycin

avoparcin

florphenicol

cephalexin

enramycin

tiamulin

Enrofloxacin,

penicillin

Erythromycin, tilmicosin

*the last years and the discouragement to discover new antibiotics are not in a relationship with production.*

*This table is not a summary of the articles reviewed, and the goal was compared to all human practices with antibiotics used, which it is clear that antibiotics production and release in nature was risen in* 

[46]

[92]

**Antibiotic**

**References**

[25] [44] [47]

*Pharmaceutical Antibiotics at a Significant Level in Nature: From Hospitals, Livestock…*

[58]

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95368*

#### *Pharmaceutical Antibiotics at a Significant Level in Nature: From Hospitals, Livestock… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95368*


*the last years and the discouragement to discover new antibiotics are not in a relationship with production.*
