Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

USING ELISA TO DETECT BETA-LACTAM RESIDUE IN WASTEWATER DISCHARGE IN THE DAIRY FACTORIES OF MOSUL

Mazin N. Fadhel and Ayman Albanna

Abstract

The presence of veterinary antibiotic traces in the aqua environment leads to strong belief that negative effects are imminent against human beings. Dairy products factories in Mosul city, Iraq, often use contaminated milk which leaves some trace of antibiotic in the wastewater discharge. So, the purpose of this study was to estimate the concentration of the beta-lactam in the wastewater discharge based on before and after treatment. Sixteen dairy factories were chosen randomly from different districts of town. The specimens were examined according to sandwich ELISA method. The study lasted for 9 months (winter, spring and summer), to focus on the season effect. Results indicated that there were relative variations in the concentration of beta lactam, according to the different seasons, where the concentration of this element ranged from 0.00 -39.50 ng/mL of the drained water. It was noticed that the concentration of beta lactam increases during winter and summer seasons, accompanied with a significant decline during the spring season. However, the proportion of samplesare free of beta lactam were only 10.41%. On the other hand, the samples of water contained about 10 ng/mL or less formed only 54.16%, also, the high concentration of beta lactam higher than 10 ng/mL was 39.58% of all samples under study. The water treatment post in any of those factories, actually, were not so efficient in grasping the harmful elements such as the beta-lactam, where the filtration rates were not more than 0.02% (considered so nil), in this sort of matter.