Effects of tylosin, ciprofloxacin, and sulfadimidine on mcrA gene abundance and the methanogen community during anaerobic digestion of cattle manure

This study evaluated how tylosin (TYL), ciprofloxacin (CIP), and sulfadimidine (SM2) affected biogas and CH4 production during anaerobic digestion (AD) via their effects on the key genes related to methane production and the methanogenic community. The results showed that TYL, CIP, and SM2 reduced the production of methane during AD by 7.5%, 21.9%, and 16.0%, respectively. After AD for five days, CIP strongly inhibited the mcrA gene, where its abundance was 49% less than that in the control. TYL and SM2 decreased the abundances of Spirochaeta and Fibrobacteres during AD. High-throughput sequencing identified 10 methanogen genera, where Methanocorpusculum, Methanobrevibacter, and Methanosarcina accounted for 99.1% of the total archaeal reads. TYL and SM2 increased the efficiency of the acetoclastic methanogen pathway (Methanosarcina) by 29.04% and 52.79%, respectively. Redundancy analysis showed that Spirochaeta, Fibrobacteres, and Methanosarcina had positive correlations with CH4 and mcrA. We found that 30 mg kg−1 CIP had a strong inhibitory effect on methane production by influencing the abundances of Methanobrevibacter and Methanosarcina during AD.