Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
The persistence of manure-borne oxytetracycline in soil was investigated under field conditions. Soil cores were collected approximately once a month for over a period of two years and subsampled at depth increments of 0-5, 5-10, 10-15, 15-36, and 36-71 cm. Soil samples were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and/or by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Whereas LC-MS showed that oxytetracycline declined to <50% of its initial soil concentration after 3 weeks, ELISA showed that the total tetracyclines did not decline significantly 5 months after manure application. The differences between ELISA and LC-MS results are attributed to the broad cross-reactivity of the antibodies employed, which detect many structurally related tetracyclines, including their isomers and degradation products. Only trace amounts (< or = 1.0 microg/kg) of oxytetracycline were observed in the subsurface soil, and none was detected in water samples from field lysimeters, suggesting that oxytetracycline has low mobility in soil.
Aga et al. (Wed,) studied this question.