DIPERPHA

Traditionally, slurry and manure have been used in agriculture as a mean for enriching the soil in nutrients (N, P). Thus, each year in France, 300 million tonnes of animal waste mainly from cattle and pig farms, are spread on the land. Thus, through the spreading of animal waste, hormones and pharmaceutical compounds are dispersed into the soil, representing a source of pollution for both soil and aquatic environment. The increase in the size of livestock farms, along with their localised concentration, has led to problems of nitrate pollution which appear to have been resolved by installing treatment facilities on the big farms. However, such facilities have not been designed for their capacity to eliminate micro-pollutants such as steroid hormones and pharmaceutical compounds. Yet, if waste treatment systems represent a concentrated source of possible contamination of the environment by such as micro-pollutants, by the same token, they are also a point of convergence prior to their eventual dispersal. For this reason, such facilities provide a focal point for intervention aimed at reducing the impact of these molecules on the ecosystems receiving the discharged waste. The aims of this study project are, in the first place: - to investigate the fate of estrogens and antibiotics present in cattle and pig manure during waste storage and treatment; - to determine the transfer of pollutants to the soil and to the plant through waste spreading on land; - to identify the parameters involved in the degradation of the estrogens and antibiotics contained in animal waste; - to optimise the breakdown and elimination of these micro-pollutants; and additionally: - to determine, through the use of luminescent cell lines, the endocrine and toxic effects of pig manure and the matter derived from its treatment; - to determine the impact of antibiotics from animal waste in the development of antibiotic resistance in soil micro-organisms: and - to identify and characterise other estrogenic compounds present in manure. These objectives necessarily involve monitoring the concentrations of estrogens and pharmaceutical compounds in cattle and pig manure storage and treatment units and at each of the different stages in the treatment process (storage pond, reactor tank, sludge…). The transfer of these pollutants to the soil and to the plant, through waste spreading on land, will be analysed in controlled systems. It will enable to determine the real fluxes of pollutants and to quantify their transfer to the soil and plants. In addition to this type of “balance study” there is a need of laboratory investigations to identify the parameters determining the dynamics of the micro-pollutants (adsorption, volatilisation, degradation). Within this framework, two approaches to the elimination of estrogenic and antibiotic compounds will be studied and optimised : biological degradation (aerobic and anaerobic) and heat treatment. An analysis of, in first place, the estrogenic activity and the global toxicity of the manure throughout the treatment process, using bioluminescent cell lines; and additionally, the study of antimicrobial resistance in soils receiving animal waste, will enable us to assess the manure's overall impact for the environment. Finally, the identification of other estrogenic compounds in the animal waste will be carried out using the combined techniques of affinity chromatography and structural chemistry (particularly high resolution mass spectrometry). These studies will lead to an understanding of the eco-dynamics and eco-toxicology of estrogens and pharmaceutical compounds in the different manure storage and treatment systems. The work will also enable the parameters involved in the degradation of such micro-pollutants to be defined, thus resulting in enhanced control of the process and a consequent lessening of their impact on the environment.