Fate of Hormones in Surface-Applied and Subsurface Injected Poultry Litter.

Fate of Hormones in Surface-Applied and Subsurface Injected Poultry Litter

T. Sosienski, K. Xia, S. Kulesza, R. Maguire

Reducing the introduction of hormones to the natural environment is of importance due to their standing as endocrine disrupting compounds; which impair the sexual development of aquatic organisms, putting them at risk for deformities and population deficits. Many environmental hormones are sourced from the application of animal wastes on agricultural fields.  In no-till systems, manure amendments are typically applied to the surface of the soil, resulting in increased surface runoff.  To reduce the potential for surface runoff, manure soil subsurface injection is becoming increasingly popular.  While technology exists for the injection of liquid swine and dairy wastes, technology is still being developed for the injection of dry wastes such as poultry litter into the soil subsurface.  Little is understood about how poultry litter subsurface injection affects the fate of the associated hormones. The purpose of this study is to compare the fate of hormones in fields receiving surface-applied and subsurface injected poultry litter. Seven hormones, hormone precursors, and conjugated hormones were investigated.  The field study was conducted on corn and orchard grass cropping systems in the Shenandoah Valley, VA.  In each cropping system 8 subsurface injected plots and 8 surface applied plots were sampled at 5 and 20 cm depths periodically after the initial poultry litter application.  Poultry litter was applied at 2.41 tons/acre and 4.82 tons/acre for the orchard grass plots 2.61 and at 1.31 tons/acre and 2.61tons/acre for the corn plots.    The hormones were extracted from the soil using a Büchi Speed Extractor followed by Oasis HLB solid phase extraction. The soil extracts were analyzed by LC/MS/MS.   The effect of poultry litter surface-application and subsurface injection on the fate of seven hormonal compounds will be discussed.