Water quality in equine production in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

Abstract

One of the key factors for equine production is water, its availability in sufficient quantity and adequate quality. Studies about water quality in equine production worldwide are limited and even more limited in Argentina (South America). However, the amount of horses in Argentina declared by National Service of Agri-Food Health and Quality is of 2.5 million heads approximately, being most of them in Buenos Aires Province. The aim is to characterize the water quality in equine production farms in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Groundwater samples were taken from 26 equine production farms where physicochemical parameters (pH, conductivity, total hardness, chlorides, nitrates and total dissolved solids), water wells’ depth and the distance from the farms to the city of Buenos Aires were registered. The values of physicochemical parameters were correlated with the distance to the city of Buenos Aires to assess the influence of the alterations in groundwater quality resulting from pollution in the city of Buenos Aires and its periphery and the depth of the wells using the Spearman correlation (p < 0.05). The results of the work show that there is an association between farms’ water quality and the distance to the city of Buenos Aires. The depth presents significant positive correlation with the conductivity, chloride and total dissolved solids and negative correlation with nitrates. This suggests that sources of groundwater near to the city of Buenos Aires present a lower water quality. In conclusion, the water equine production farms in Buenos Aires Province were negatively related to the distance from Buenos Aires city. Equine farms closest to the city (< 80 km) may present different problems to be considered: the excessive salinity and the presence of nitrates from anthropic origin.