**Veterinary Antibiotics in the Environment**

Rafael Grossi Botelho, Sérgio Henrique Monteiro and Valdemar Luiz Tornisielo

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/60847

#### **Abstract**

In recent years, pharmaceutical pollution in the environment has been a great concern due to the potential effects on the human and animal health. Some of the most used classes such as antibiotics, which are used to prevent and treat bacterial infections and promote the growth of livestock, deserve to be highlighted since their intensive use has contaminated environmental matrices such as soil, water, sediment, plants, and animals with effects on the biota. To better understand the potential ecological risk of antibiotics in environments and to develop management strategies for these substances searching to reach the reduction of these compounds in aquatic systems, one of the most important steps is to determine the environmental concentrations of these compounds in the envi‐ ronments through analytical methods and evaluate their effects on the biota. The goal of this chapter is contribute with information about the effects of these compounds on the biota as well as its environmental behavior and bacterial resistance in additional to the main techniques for samples preparation and quantitative and confirmatory methods for its determination in the environment.

**Keywords:** Antibiotic, chromatography methods, environmental contamination, sample preparations

## **1. Introduction**

#### **1.1. Concept and main classes**

Antibiotics (ATBs) are natural or synthetic chemical agents that belong to the group of drugs that play a major role in the prevention and treatment of diseases in human and veterinary medicine [1] inhibiting (bacteriostatic) or killing (bactericidal) microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and protozoa [2], besides acting as animal growth promoters [1].

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ATBs differ by their chemical structure and mechanism of action, two characteristics that allow these compounds to be grouped into several classes, such as β-lactams, quinolones, tetracy‐ clines, macrolides, sulfonamides, and chloramphenicol, among others. Some of the main ATBs classes used in veterinary medicine, as well as some examples of compounds belonging to them, are shown in Table 1.


**Table 1.** Important classes and examples of veterinary ATBs.

ATBs may be of natural or synthetic origin. The first ATB, penicillin, which is produced by fungi of the Penicillium genus, that is, of natural origin, was discovered in 1929 by the physician and bacteriologist Alexander Fleming. Currently, the ATBs, that are small molecules with molecular weight of less than 1000 Da, are produced by chemical synthesis or by chemical modification of naturally occurring compounds [1].
