ABSTRACT
In recent years, there has been increasing awareness of the widespread distribution of low concentrations of veterinary medicine products and other pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment. Although aquatic hazard for a select group of veterinary medicines has received previous study (e.g., aquaculture products and sheep dips), until very recently less information has been available in the published literature for other therapeutic groups (Halling-Sørensen 1999; Jørgensen and Halling-Sørensen 2000; Ingerslev and Halling-Sørensen 2001; Koschorreck et al. 2002; Boxall et al. 2003, 2004b). The majority of available aquatic ecotoxicity information for veterinary medicines was generated from short-term (e.g., 24 to 96-hour) bioassays to meet requirements for product registrations (Boxall et al. 2004b). Limited information is available for partial life cycle or life cycle exposure scenarios and on hazards in lentic systems and lotic systems, particularly in arid to semiarid regions (Brooks et al. 2006, 2007).
