title: Veterinary drugs in the environment and their toxicity to plants.
abstract: Veterinary drugs used for treatment and prevention of diseases in animals represent important source of environmental pollution due to intensive agri- and aquaculture production. The drugs can reach environment through the treatment processes, inappropriate disposal of used containers, unused medicine or livestock feed, and manufacturing processes. Wide scale of veterinary pharmaceuticals e.g. antibiotics, antiparasitic and antifungal drugs, hormones, anti-inflammatory drugs, anaesthetics, sedatives etc. enter the environment and may affect non-target organisms including plants. This review characterizes the commonly used drugs in veterinary practice, outlines their behaviour in the environment and summarizes available information about their toxic effect on plants. Significant influence of many antibiotics and hormones on plant developmental and physiological processes have been proved. However, potential phytotoxicity of other veterinary drugs has been studied rarely, although knowledge of phytotoxicity of veterinary drugs may help predict their influence on biodiversity and improve phytoremediation strategies. Moreover, additional topics such as long term effect of low doses of drugs and their metabolites, behaviour of mixture of veterinary drugs and other chemicals in ecosystems should be more thoroughly investigated to obtain complex information on the impact of veterinary drugs in the environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemical Sciences, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Pharmacy, Heyrovského 1203, Hradec Králové, CZ-500 05, Czech Republic. Electronic address: barth3aa@faf.cuni.cz.
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bártíková
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Plant Biotechnologies, Institute of Experimental Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Rozvojová 263, Praha 6, CZ-165 02, Czech Republic. Electronic address: podlipna@ueb.cas.cz.
authors.forename: Radka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Podlipná
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemical Sciences, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Pharmacy, Heyrovského 1203, Hradec Králové, CZ-500 05, Czech Republic. Electronic address: lenka.skalova@faf.cuni.cz.
authors.forename: Lenka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Skálová
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D010945:Plants, Edible / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity*; D019155:Veterinary Drugs / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D012989:Soil Pollutants; D019155:Veterinary Drugs
keywords: Environmental impact; Growth promoters; Phytotoxicity; Veterinary antibiotics