**7. Final remarks**

Veterinary antibiotics have become an integral component in maintaining animal health, and although they have been used in large quantities for some decades, the existence of these substances in the environment has received little importance until recently. It is only in recent years that a more complex investigation of antibiotic substances has been undertaken in order to permit an assessment of the environmental risks they may pose.

This chapter showed that the fate of antibiotics in soil–water systems and their effects on plants, soil, and aquatic organisms have been heavily studied through chromatographic analysis and toxicity test with many species. The multianalyte methods using SPE, LC/MS, LC/MS/MS, ASE, and others described in the chapter have been used to show the occurrence and transport of antibiotics from their sources into the environment.

The environmental dissemination of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their relationship with human health has also been the objective of this study and needs to be investigated in greater depths by health and regulatory bodies so that a compromise can be made when it comes to the prudent use of VAs and their risk to human health and the environment in general.
