Environmental fate of roxarsone in poultry litter. I. Degradation of roxarsone during composting

Roxarsone, 3-nitro-4-hydroxyphenylarsonic acid, is an organoarsenic compound that is used extensively in the feed of broiler poultry to control coccidial intestinal parasites, improve feed efficiency, and promote rapid growth. Nearly all the roxarsone in the feed is excreted unchanged in the manure. Poultry litter composed of the manure and bedding material has a high nutrient content and is used routinely as a fertilizer on cropland and pasture. Investigations were conducted to determine the fate of poultry-litter roxarsone in the environment Experiments indicated that roxarsone was stable in fresh dried litter; the primary arsenic species extracted with water from dried litter was roxarsone. However, when water was added to litter at about 50 wt % and the mixture was allowed to compost at 40 degrees C, the speciation of arsenic shifted from roxarsone to primarily arsenate in about 30 days. Increasing the amount of water increased the rate of degradation. Experiments also suggested that the degradation process most likely was biotic in nature. The rate of degradation was directly proportional to the incubation temperature; heat sterilization eliminated the degradation. Biotic degradation also was supported by results from enterobacteriaceae growth media that were inoculated with litter slurry to enhance the biotic processes and to reduce the concomitant abiotic effects from the complex litter solution. Samples collected from a variety of litter windrows in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Maryland also showed that roxarsone originally present had been converted to arsenate.

Environmental fate of roxarsone in poultry litter. Part II. Mobility of arsenic in soils amended with poultry litter

Poultry litter often contains arsenic as a result of organo-arsenical feed additives. When the poultry litter is applied to agricultural fields, the arsenic is released to the environment and may result in increased arsenic in surface and groundwater and increased uptake by plants. The release of arsenic from poultry litter, litter-amended soils, and soils without litter amendment was examined by extraction with water and strong acids (HCI and HNO3). The extracts were analyzed for As, C, P, Cu, Zn, and Fe. Copper, zinc, and iron are also poultry feed additives. Soils with a known history of litter application and controlled application rate of arsenic-containing poultry litter were obtained from the University of Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station. Soils from fields with long-term application of poultry litter were obtained from a tilled field on the Delmarva Peninsula (MD) and an untilled Oklahoma pasture. Samples from an adjacent forest or nearby pasture that had no history of litter application were used as controls. Depth profiles were sampled for the Oklahoma pasture soils. Analysis of the poultry litter showed that 75% of the arsenic was readily soluble in water. Extraction of soils shows that weakly bound arsenic mobilized by water correlates positively with C, P, Cu, and Zn in amended fields and appears to come primarily from the litter. Strongly bound arsenic correlates positively with Fe in amended fields and suggests sorption or coprecipitation of As and Fe in the soil column.

Photodegradation of roxarsone in poultry litter leachates

Arsenic compounds have been used extensively in agriculture in the US for applications ranging from cotton herbicides to animal feed supplements. Roxarsone (3-nitro-4-hydroxyphenylarsonic acid), in particular, is used widely in poultry production to control coccidial intestinal parasites. It is excreted unchanged in the manure and introduced into the environment when litter is applied to farmland as fertilizer. Although the toxicity of roxarsone is less than that of inorganic arsenic, roxarsone can degrade, biotically and abiotically, to produce more toxic inorganic forms of arsenic, such as arsenite and arsenate. Experiments were conducted on aqueous litter leachates to test the stability of roxarsone under different conditions. Laboratory experiments have shown that arsenite can be cleaved photolytically from the roxarsone moiety at pH 4-8 and that the degradation rate increases with increasing pH. Furthermore, the rate of photodegradation increases with nitrate and natural organic matter concentration, reactants that are commonly found in poultry-litter-water leachates. Additional photochemical reactions rapidly oxidize the cleaved arsenite to arsenate. The formation of arsenate is not entirely undesirable, because it is less mobile in soil systems and less toxic than arsenite. A possible mechanism for the degradation of roxarsone in poultry litter leachates is proposed. The results suggest that poultry litter storage and field application practices could affect the degradation of roxarsone and subsequent mobilization of inorganic arsenic species.

Application of a membrane model to the sorptive interactions of humic substances

Humic substances, the dark-colored, natural organic polyelectrolytes that are found in practically all soils, sediments, and natural water, strongly interact with both inorganic and organic pollutants. Inorganic cationic species generally undergo complexation reactions with humic substances. The binding of cations, such as cupric ions, by humic substances often markedly reduces their toxicity to aquatic organisms. Some inorganic anionic species, in the presence of metal ions, are sorbed by humic substances. In these instances the metal ions appear to form bridges between the humic substances and the anions. Several different types of interactions take place between organic compounds and humic materials. Hydrophobic organic species partition into either insoluble or soluble humic substances. The insoluble humic substances will remove hydrophobic organic compounds from the aqueous phase, thereby rendering them less mobile. However, soluble humic substances will solubilize hydrophobic organics, increasing their mobility. Other types of interactions between humic substances and organic compounds, such as adsorption and ion exchange, also have been observed. These various interactions between humic substances and pollutants are important in governing their fate and movement in natural water systems, and, for this reason, a detailed understanding of the mechanisms of the interaction is important. A recently developed membrane model of the structure of humic substances is described; this model enables one to better understand the physical-chemical properties of these materials.

Methylation of Humic Acid Fractions

A new three-step permethylation procedure for humic acid fractions has been developed. In the first step, carboxylic acid groups are methylated with diazomethane in dimethylformamide; in the second step, hydroxyl groups are methylated with methyl iodide and dimethyl sulfinyl carbanion in dimethylformamide; and in the third step, acidic groups hydrolyzed in the earlier steps are methylated with diazomethane. The resulting product is completely soluble in methylene chloride (a high degree of methylation has been achieved).

Sodium Humate Solution Studied with Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering

Small-angle x-ray scattering analyses of sodium humate solutions indicate either that particles of two or more different sizes exist in solution or that all of the particles are the same size but consist of a dense core and a less dense outer shell. Fractionation on a molecular sieve chromatographic column suggests that the first possibility is the more likely of the two. The radius of gyration and molecular weight of the larger particles are respectively 110 A and 1 x 10(6) and those of the smaller particles 38 A and 2.1 x 10(5). These particles are ellipsoidal.