Long‐term exposure of Allonais inaequalis to a mixture of antibiotics in freshwater and synthetic wastewater matrices: Reproduction, recovery, and swimming responses

Abstract

Antibiotics from sulfonamide, fluoroquinolone, and diaminopyrimidine classes are widely used in human and veterinary medicine, and their combined occurrence in the aquatic environment is increasing around the world. In parallel, the understanding of how mixtures of these compounds affect non‐target species from tropical freshwaters is scarce. Thus, this work aimed to study the long‐term reproductive, recovery, and swimming effects of mixtures of 12 antibiotics from three different classes (up to 10 μg L−1) added to freshwater (FWM) and synthetic wastewater (SWM) matrices on freshwater worm Allonais inaequalis. Results revealed that at the reproduction level, the exposure to antibiotics in the SWM matrix does not cause a significant toxic effect on species after 10 days. On the other hand, exposures to initial dose mixtures (10 μg L−1 each) in FWM caused a significant reduction of offspring by 19.2%. In addition, recovery bioassays (10 days in an antibiotic‐free environment) suggested that A. inaequalis has reduced offspring production due to previous exposure to antibiotic mixtures in both matrices. Furthermore, despite slight variation in swimming speed over treatments, no significant differences were pointed out. Regarding antibiotics in the water matrices after 10‐day exposures, the highest concentrations were up to 2.7, 7.8, and 4.2 μg L−1 for antibiotics from sulfonamide, fluoroquinolone, and diaminopyrimidine classes, respectively. These findings suggest that a species positioned between primary producers and secondary consumers may experience late reproductive damage even in an antibiotic‐free zone, after previous 10‐day exposure to antibiotic mixtures.Practitioner Points A mixture of sulfonamide, fluoroquinolone, and diaminopyrimidine antibiotics in freshwater affects the offspring production of A. inaequalis after 10 days. After the 10‐day antibiotic exposure, the reproduction of A. inaequalis remains affected in an antibiotic‐free environment over the recovery period. The swimming speed of the worms does not change after 10 days of exposure to the antibiotic mixture. The concentration of dissolved solids can limit the natural degradation of sulfonamide, fluoroquinolone, and diaminopyrimidine antibiotics in the aquatic environment.