Long-term manure application increased the levels of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes in a greenhouse soil

Abstract

Land application of animal manure, as an important agronomic practice, represents a potential route to disseminate antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) into the soil environment. Previous studies have demonstrated that manure-derived ARGs and pathogenic organisms rapidly decline over time following manure application, however, the impacts of long-term and repeated application of animal manure on the diversity and abundance of soil ARGs remain less understood. Here, we investigated the diversity and abundance of ARGs in greenhouse soils with long-term dairy cattle and chicken manure (DM and CM) application, and the half-life of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) isolated from manured soils in ..