Tetracycline Rapid Test (Milk)

As a feed additive in agriculture, the antibiotic oxytetracycline (OTC) has become widely distributed in the natural environment, leading to the exposure of many organisms to low doses of OTC. Although OTC is clinically contraindicated in children because of its multiple side effects, the effect of exposure to low doses of environmental OTC on children is unknown, particularly during development. In this study, we investigated the effects of OTC on the thyroid endocrine system in zebrafish, through determinations of the whole-body contents of triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and analysis of the mRNA expression of regulatory genes involved in the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Zebrafish embryos were exposed to OTC at environmentally relevant concentrations from 2 h to 120 days post-fertilisation. After exposure to OTC at 1,000 and 5,000 ng/L, T3 contents were significantly enhanced (37.8% and 45.1%, respectively) and TSH contents were reduced (16% and 16.3%, respectively) compared with those in the controls. The OTC-driven increase in the transcription of genes involved in thyroid synthesis (tpo and nis) may be responsible for the altered T3 levels. These data indicate that OTC may cause thyroid dysfunction and lead to reduced TSH secretion owing to enhanced negative feedback control of the HPT axis. Meanwhile, a decrease in body length, weight, and BMI and an increase in heart rate were observed with increasing OTC exposure. In conclusion, our results indicate that long-term exposure to low concentrations of OTC may alter the transcription of key genes involved in the HPT axis, as well as T3 and TSH contents, thereby disrupting the thyroid system and affecting the growth and development of zebrafish.

In this study, the simultaneous degradation of antibiotics (ampicillin, sulfamethazine, and tetracycline; and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (diclofenac and salicylic acid)) including the total organic carbon abatement by solar photoelectro-Fenton process was assessed. Eight liters of solution containing the mixture of the five pharmaceuticals in 1 mmol L-1 Fe2+, 0.05 mol L-1 Na2SO4 at pH 3 and 35 degrees C were electrolyzed applying different current densities (j = 10, 25, and 50 mA cm(-2)) in a solar-electrochemical pilot plant. The pilot plant was equipped with an electrochemical filter press cell with a dimensionally stable anode (DSA type) and an air-diffusion cathode coupled to a solar photoreactor exposed directly to sunlight radiation. All pharmaceuticals were degraded during the first 10 min. A TOC removal efficiency of 99.2% after 100 min of treatment with an energy consumption of 534.23 kW h (kg(TOC))(-1) and 7.15 kW h m(-3) was achieved. The pharmaceutical concentration decay followed a pseudo-first-order kinetics. The specific energy per unit of mass of ampicillin, diclofenac, salicylic acid, sulfamethazine, and tetracycline was obtained at 11.73, 19.56, 35.2, 11.73, and 39.32 kW h (kg(PD))(-1) for ampicillin, diclofenac, salicylic acid, sulfamethazine, and tetracycline, respectively. With our results, we demonstrated that SPEF is an emerging technology for the treatment of this type of pollutants in short time.