Earth matters: Clean - Soil, Air, Water

Benzimidazole antiparasitics may persist in the environment for long periods of time, a study has found, but do not leach readily into groundwater.

There has been a growing interest in recent years in the behavior of veterinary medicines entering the soil via manure, and their impact on the environment.

To date, most studies have focused on antibiotics, such as sulfonamides and tetracyclines, or macrolide endectocides, such as ivermectin. Researchers at Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany, investigated the benzimidazole antiparasitics fenbendazole and flubendazole.

In contrast to sulfonamides, which rapidly form non-extractable residues, both benzimidazoles remained extractable in manure and soil samples. Flubendazole was unchanged, while fenbendazole was accompanied by metabolites. Due to their slow degradation in manure, a storage period of six months would not substantially reduce environmental exposure to the drugs, the study found. However, they were not found to leach readily into groundwater.

The study is published in the November issue of the journal Clean - Soil, Air, Water.

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