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Occurrence, composition and risk assessment of antibiotics in soils from Kenya, Africa

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Abstract

Antibiotics can accumulate in soils via different ways, which may pose serious threat to ecological environment of soil and quality of agricultural products. In this study, the occurrence of 12 antibiotics including four sulfonamides (SAs), four tetracyclines (TETs) and four fluoroquinolones (FQs) was investigated in soils from four sampling sites of Kenya (Mai Mahiu, Narok, Mount Suswa Conservancy, and Juja), Africa. The soils in suburban area of Narok had the highest average concentrations of total 12 antibiotics with an average value of 43.64 μg kg−1 dw (dry weight), followed by Mai Mahiu (26.70 μg kg−1 dw), Juja (24.41 μg kg−1 dw) and Mount Suswa Conservancy (12.21 μg kg−1 dw). Sulfamethoxazole, sulfamethazine, oxytetracycline, and enrofloxacin were identified as the main antibiotics polluted in soils. Total organic carbon may influence the distribution of SAs in Narok and FQs in Juja. Ecological risk analysis based on the risk quotient showed that SAs detected in soils have higher risk compared to TETs and FQs.

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Funding

This study was funded by Funding Project of Sino-Africa Joint Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Y623321K01), Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NO. 2015282) and the Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Y329671K01).

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Correspondence to Jun Wang.

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Yuyi Yang declares that he has no conflict of interest, Anita Awino Owino declares that he has no conflict of interest, Yan Gao declares that he has no conflict of interest, Xue Yan declares that he has no conflict of interest, Chen Xu declares that she has no conflict of interest, Jun Wang declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Yang, Y., Owino, A.A., Gao, Y. et al. Occurrence, composition and risk assessment of antibiotics in soils from Kenya, Africa. Ecotoxicology 25, 1194–1201 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-016-1673-3

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