“…Sulfonamides (SAs) represent one important class of antibiotics commonly used in veterinary and human medical practices because of their broad antimicrobial spectrum, strong antibacterial activity, stable chemical property, and low price (Hess et al, 1999;Huang et al, 2012). SAs are amphoteric and water-soluble compounds with a high environmental mobility (Dirany et al, 2012), so their traces are ubiquitous in almost all waters (e.g., waste, surface, ground, and drinking waters) (Lanuza, 2010;Capdeville and Budzinski, 2011;Fatta-Kassinos et al, 2011). Even though no direct human health effects have been reported (Le et al, 2005), SAs tend to bio-accumulate and have potential adverse effects on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems by interrupting the normal activities of some microorganisms as well as developing and spreading antibiotic resistance genes (Elmolla and Chaudhuri, 2010;Rivas et al, 2011;Yuan et al, 2011).…”