Environmental Residues and Ecotoxicity of Antibiotics and Their Resistance Gene Pollution: A Review
抗生素的环境残留、生态毒性及抗性基因污染

More and more attention has been paid to the challenging issue on environmental contamination and ecological poisons of antibiotics in recent years. Pollution sources of some typical antibiotics including tetracycline (TC), oxytetracycline (OTC), chlortetracycline (CTC) and sulfonamides and their residues and contaminant levels in water and soil environment were analyzed. In particular, the newly progress in pollution ecotoxicity of antibiotics were reviewed. Due to the residual toxicity of antibiotics, antibiotics resistance genes (ARGs) were suggested as one of the emerging pollutants and more concerns should be paid to the type of pollutants. The potential exposure pathways of ARGs were also discussed. In view of the austere pollution facts of antibiotics, we offer a proposal that a systematic research on environmental pollution and ecotoxicological mechanisms of antibiotics should be carried out as a national reconnaissance.