Veterinary anticoccidials are used in poultry feed at therapeutic levels to treat disease and at sub-therapeutic levels for growth-promotion. They are chemically known as ionophores and have been found in significant quantities in animal manure. Although little published research exists on their persistence after manure is land applied, they are rapidly becoming identified as an emerging contaminant. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of poultry manure on the sorption of commonly used ionophores in soil. Poultry litter that is commonly used as fertilizer in agriculture, was collected from commercial broiler houses and were used at three rates representing field application rates of manure.
Batch equilibrium sorption experiments were conducted for poultry manure, manure amended soil and soil alone. Samples were analyzed using liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) to determine ionophore concentrations (monensin, salinomycin, narasin and lasalocid) in the various matrices. We will report on the sorption trends of ionophores in soil, manure amended soil and soil alone.