Steroid hormone contamination originating from livestock waste is a serious ecological concern. Various experiments proved that steroid hormones in very low concentrations cause endocrine disruption in many aquatic species. Estrogens, a class of steroid hormones are produced by females, especially in high amounts during pregnancy. These estrogens, excreted in the form of urine and feces, reach the environment when animal waste is applied to agricultural lands as manure. Lange et al estimated that annual estrogen excretion from livestock animals is about 49 tons in the US alone, majority of which is contributed by pregnant cattle. Male fish exposed to natural estrogens estrone, and estradiol showed high incidence of intersexuality or female characteristics. Hence it is important to assess the potential risk of estrogen loading to the environment. Typically, cattle waste is transferred from feeding sheds to a storage system where it undergoes anaerobic digestion before land applied. Our research aims at developing a method for extracting estrogens from anaerobically digested cattle waste using extraction techniques;solid phase extraction (SPE) and stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE). The extracted estrogens are qualitatively and quantitatively determined using LC-MS/MS and GC-MS. The outcome of our study will help in regulating the waste management practices.

Occurrence of estrogens and other steroids in anaerobically digested cattle waste

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.