Abstract: Tetracycline antibiotics are widely used in clinical medicine, animal husbandry, and breeding industry due to high antibacterial efficiency, wide application range and low price. However, the abuse and improper treatment of tetracycline antibiotics have led to unintended adverse results. The residual concentration of tetracycline antibiotics is above the safety level due to accumulation in the media. The enrichment, migration and transformation of tetracycline residues in the environmental media such as water, soil, and atmosphere have posed a huge threat to the health of both ecosystem and human. Therefore, it is important to understand the residual concentration and spreading of tetracycline antibiotics in the environment. Although the levels are generally trace, it is frequently existed in different media. Furthermore, the pollution diffusion of tetracycline antibiotics in all environmental media has the characteristics of high mobility, easy diffusion and wide ranges. The future research should focus on trace detection of antibiotics in different media, combined pollution of multi pollutants and antibiotic resistance.

Key words: tetracycline antibiotics, ecological toxicity, residual concentration, pollution diffusion.