Efficacy of Nature-based Treatment Systems for Chemicals used for Zoonoses control

Veterinary pharmaceuticals increasingly used in animal husbandry to control infectious diseases can cause pollution of aquatic environments: surface water, groundwater and drinking water. Widespread use of these chemicals is needed to prevent ongoing zoonoses and control disease outbreaks.

Subsequent clean-up of these products and their breakdown products is challenging, and the sustainable treatment of effluents containing these chemicals is hampered by the lack of treatment options applicable to rural location and/or diffuse nature of application away from established wastewater treatment infrastructure.

Nature-based solutions offer a potential means for sustainable, equitable, and resilient treatment of runoff and effluents containing pharmaceuticals.