Composting of swine waste in the treatment of veterinary drug residues

Abstract

The increasing need for animal protein has exerted pressures on the current animal production system. One of the alternatives found by producers to improve animal performance has been the use of veterinary drugs, especially antibiotics. However, its indiscriminate use can be a risk to the environmental balance of the producing locations since Brazil has approximately 42 million pigs. With this herd, pig farming represents a great potential for generating environmental impacts. As an alternative use of the large volume of liquid pig manure generated, many producers have been using this slurry in the soil as a bio fertilizer. Residues of veterinary drugs are capable of accumulation with environmental matrices and leach into water resources. In this sense, it is mandatory to dedicate more efforts on the study of techniques and processes for the treatment of organic effluents contaminated by veterinary drugs. Low-cost and environmentally friendly alternative treatment systems are necessary, in order to minimize the entry of these contaminants into the environment. Therefore, the composting process, defined as aerobic microbial decomposition process of organic matter, can be an alternative for treating the effluents contaminated by veterinary drugs. This review to aims to create awareness in the academic community regarding the veterinary drug residues and their contamination potential in different environmental matrices, as well as evaluating the composting process as a technique to minimize the impacts of the swine activity waste on the environment.