Environmental risks from mixtures of antibiotic pharmaceuticals in soils – a literature review | Umweltbundesamt

The report summarizes the current knowledge on antibiotic contaminations in soils. The study raises concerns regarding the contamination of manure, anaerobic digestate and sewage sludge with antibiotic mixtures and discusses their ecotoxicological effects and spread of antimicrobial resistance in soils. Overall aims were mainly to identify antibiotic mixtures typically applied in veterinary and human medicine, to evaluate reports on mixtures and contamination levels occurring in soils and in organic waste materials applied to soil as fertilizer, to summarize mixture effects for soil(micro)organisms, and to identify major knowledge gaps to propose further steps for research and regulation.