Determination of antibiotics in sewage from hospitals, nursery and slaughter house, wastewater treatment plant and source water in Chongqing region of Three Gorge Reservoir in China.

Sewage samples from 4 hospitals, 1 nursery, 1 slaughter house, 1 wastewater treatment plant and 5 source water samples of Chongqing region of Three Gorge Reservoir were analyzed for macrolide, lincosamide, trimethoprim, fluorouinolone, sulfonamide and tetracycline antibiotics by online solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Results showed that the concentration of ofloxacin (OFX) in hospital was the highest among all water environments ranged from 1.660 microg/L to 4.240 microg/L and norfloxacin (NOR, 0.136-1.620 microg/L), ciproflaxacin (CIP, ranged from 0.011 microg/L to 0.136 microg/L), trimethoprim (TMP, 0.061-0.174 microg/L) were commonly detected. Removal range of antibiotics in the wastewater treatment plant was 18-100% and the removal ratio of tylosin, oxytetracycline and tetracycline were 100%. Relatively higher removal efficiencies were observed for tylosin (TYL), oxytetracycline (OXY) and tetracycline (TET)(100%), while lower removal efficiencies were observed for Trimethoprim (TMP, 1%), Epi-iso-chlorotetracycline (EICIC, 18%) and Erythromycin-H(2)O (ERY-H(2)O, 24%). Antibiotics were removed more efficiently in primary treatment compared with those in secondary treatment. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.