Water reuse and aquaculture: Pharmaceutical bioaccumulation by fish during tertiary treatment in a wastewater stabilization pond.
With increasing demand for aquaculture products, water reuse is likely to increase for aquaculture around the world. We determined the bioaccumulation of selected pharmaceuticals from several therapeutic classes by two important aquaculture fish species (common carp – Cyprinus carpio and pikeperch – Sander lucioperca) which were restocked to a wastewater stabilization pond for six months. Forty and nineteen from 66 selected pharmaceuticals and their metabolites were positively found in water and sediment samples. Fourteen pharmaceuticals and their metabolites were detected in at least one fish tissue. We observed differences for fish species and organ specific bioaccumulation factors among studied pharmaceuticals. Though muscle tissues consistently accumulated lower levels of the target analytes, several substances were elevated in the brain, liver and kidney tissues (e.g., antidepressant sertraline) of both species. Low residual concentrations of these target analytes in aquaculture products (fish fillets) suggest that these ponds (which commonly served as a tertiary step for wastewater treatment and can be used as the worst-case scenario) are promising to support the water-food nexus in aquaculture.
Further details can be found in the following publication: Grabicová, K., Grabic, R., Fedorova, G., Vojs Staňová, A., Bláha, M., Randák, T., Brooks, B.W., Žlábek, V., 2020. Water reuse and aquaculture: Pharmaceutical bioaccumulation by fish during tertiary treatment in a wastewater stabilization pond. Environmental Pollution 267: 115593. (IF 2019 = 6.792; AIS 2019 = 1.229).
