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.

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An optimized extraction and clean-up method for the analysis of chlortetracycline, doxycycline, oxytetracycline, and tetracycline antibiotics in soil is presented in this work. Soil extraction using different solvents was performed, but the use of a 50 : 50 (v/v) methanol : acetate buffer (pH 8) solvent mixture in a pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) system proved to give the best extraction efficiency and reproducibility. The effect of soil composition on the PLE extraction efficiency was also examined, and results indicated that recovery data for one soil is not necessarily consistent with other soil types containing different compositions of clay and organic matter content. The percent recoveries of the optimized PLE method varied between the soils and ranged from 22-99%, depending on soil type, and more specifically clay content. In addition, the extent of ionization suppression caused by co-extracted humic acids was examined in an ion trap mass spectrometer (MS), and a single quadrupole MS. It was found that under positive electrospray ionization, the single quadrupole MS was less susceptible to ionization suppression than the ion trap MS. Therefore, various sample clean-up procedures were evaluated to selectively reduce the amount of co-extracted humic acids in the soil extracts. The most effective clean-up was obtained from the use of StrataX sorbent in combination with a strong anion exchange cartridge.

Metabolic footprinting coupled with statistical analysis was applied to multiple, chemically stressed activated sludge cultures to identify probable biomarkers that indicate community stress. The impact of cadmium (Cd), 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP), and N-ethyl-maleimide (NEM) shock loads on the composition of the soluble fraction of activated sludge cultures was analyzed by gross biomolecular analyses and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Fresh mixed liquor from four distinct treatment plants was each divided in four different batches and was subjected to no chemical addition (control) and spike additions of the stressors Cd, DNP, or NEM. The results indicate that chemical stress caused a significant release of proteins, carbohydrates, and humic acids from the floc structure into the bulk liquid. Using discriminant function analysis (DFA) with genetic algorithm variable selection (GA-DFA), the samples subjected to the different stress conditions plus control could be differentiated, thereby indicating that the footprints of the soluble phase generated by LC-MS were different for the four conditions tested and, therefore, were toxin-specific but community-independent. These footprints, thus, contain information about specific biomolecular differences between the stressed samples, and we found that only a limited number of m/z (mass to charge) ratios from the mass spectra were needed to differentiate between the control and each stressed sample. Since the experiments were conducted with mixed liquor from four distinct wastewater treatment plants, the discriminant m/z ratios may potentially be used as universal stress biomarkers in activated sludge systems.