Journal of Ecology and Rural Environment ›› 2017, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (7): 586-591.doi: 10.11934/j.issn.1673-4831.2017.07.002

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Management Policies for Control of Environmental Risks of Veterinary Antibiotics

WANG Na1,2, WANG Zan-chang1,2, GUO Xin-yan1,2, XU Jing1,2, SHAN Zheng-jun1,2   

  1. 1. Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Nanjing 210042, China;
    2. Key Laboratory of Pesticide Environmental Assessment and Pollution Control, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Nanjing 210042, China
  • Received:2016-09-22 Online:2017-07-25 Published:2017-07-25

Abstract:

Antibiotics are commonly used as veterinary medicines and feed additives in fish/poultry/livestock raising the world over. The application of veterinary antibiotics has brought abundant profits to the farmers in agricultural livestock raising areas for its effect of preventing and curing animal diseases. However, like a coin, the use has another side effect, causing a serious problem of dissemination and proliferation of antibiotics/antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) in the environment, which has posed a serious threat to the ecological environment and human health. A review is presented of management policies for registration and utilization of veterinary antibiotics, standards for their use, and plans for prevention and control of veterinary antibiotics at home and abroad. On such a basis, proposals were brought forth of policies for environmental risk control and management of veterinary antibiotics in China from different perspectives, including establishing mechanism for supervision of veterinary antibiotics in environment, so as to control the pollution of antibiotics/ARGs at source; formulating guidelines for environmental risk assessment of veterinary antibiotics so as to prevent environmental and health risks at the registration stage, accelerating formulation of standards for control of antibiotics/ARGs in manure/waste water, so as to eliminate the pollution at the terminal step; intensifying disposition and management of antibiotics-containing manure, so as to restrict overflow of antibiotics/ARGs in the environment; and promoting development of organic agriculture in China, so as to provide basic support to environment management of veterinary antibiotics in the country.

Key words: antibiotics, antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs), environmental risk control, management policy

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