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Livestock wastes from family-operated farms are potential important sources of potentially toxic elements, antibiotics, and estrogens in rural areas in North China

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Abstract

The open-air storage and disposal of livestock waste from family-operated livestock farms can be a potential health threat to rural residents. In this study, the occurrence and seasonal distribution of 8 potentially toxic elements, 24 antibiotics, and 4 estrogens were investigated in 44 waste samples from 11 rural farms in North China. The results showed that these micropollutants were ubiquitous in livestock waste, with concentration ranges of 238.9–4555 mg/kg for potentially toxic elements, not detected (ND) to 286,672 μg/kg for antibiotics and ND to 229.5 μg/kg for estrogens. The pollutants in animal wastes showed seasonal variation. Since these wastes are directly applicable to nearby farmland without treatment, the risks those wastes pose to farmland soils were also evaluated. Risk assessment results showed that Zn, Cd, Hg, FF and DC in swine manures were at high risk, while total estrogens in chicken and dairy cattle manures were at high risk. The results will provide important data for the regulation of animal wastes produced by small-scale livestock farms in rural areas of China.

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Data availability

The authors declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information files. Should any raw data files be needed in another format they are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. 

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Funding

This study was funded by the Science and Technology Innovation Project of the Bei**g Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences (grant nos. KJCX20210424, KJCX20230309, and KJCX20230817), and the Youth Science Research Fund of the Bei**g Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Science (QNJJ202116).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Quality Standard and Testing Technology, Bei**g Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Bei**g, 100097, China

    Yang Li, **nyu Li, Xupu Ma, Zhihong Ma, Hua ** & Cheng Li

  2. Institute of Biotechnology, Bei**g Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Bei**g, 100097, China

    Tianlei Qiu

  3. Langfang Agricultural and Rural Bureau in Hebei Province, Langfang Hebei, 065000, China

    **ncheng Fu

  4. Bei**g Municipal Key Laboratory of Agriculture Environment Monitoring, Bei**g, 100097, China

    Cheng Li

Authors
  1. Yang Li
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  2. **nyu Li
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  3. Xupu Ma
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  4. Tianlei Qiu
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  5. **ncheng Fu
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  7. Hua **
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  8. Cheng Li
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by **nyu Li, Xupu Ma, Tianlei Qiu and **ncheng Fu. The methodology and data curation were performed by Zhihong Ma and Hua **. The first draft and review of the manuscript was written by Yang Li and Cheng Li, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Cheng Li.

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Li, Y., Li, X., Ma, X. et al. Livestock wastes from family-operated farms are potential important sources of potentially toxic elements, antibiotics, and estrogens in rural areas in North China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 118456–118467 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30663-w

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