Development of a novel concept for fate monitoring of biocides in liquid manure and manured soil taking 14C-imazalil as an example.

Biocides are frequently applied in animal houses for veterinary hygiene or pest control. Thus, they may reach liquid manure tanks. Biocides that are not transformed during manure storage enter soil by the application of manure as organic fertilizer. Due to this environmentally relevant entry route, biocidal substances and products undergo a regulatory fate monitoring in liquid manure and soil. According to this, a novel concept was developed investigating the biocide imazalil as an example. For this purpose, excrements of test animals individually kept in experimental animal houses under standard nutrition were sampled. After matrix characterization, bovine and pig reference manures of defined dry substance contents were prepared. They were used for long-term transformation tests of (14)C-imazalil under strictly anaerobic conditions typical for manure storage in tanks. During the 177-d incubation period, however, imazalil was not substantially transformed. Furthermore, test manures with 7-d aged (14)C-imazalil residues were applied to study aerobic transformation and sorption in manured soil. Both concentration determining processes in soil were affected by the manure matrices. Comparing disappearance times (DT(50)) and sorption coefficients (K(OC)) after standard application (DT(50): 83 d; K(OC): 4059 L kg(-1)), (14)C-imazalil disappeared more rapidly after test manure application. DT(50) values were 29 or 48 d depending on whether bovine or pig test manure was applied. Mobility was slightly enhanced revealed by K(OC) of 1852 and 1385 L kg(-1), respectively.