4. Simultaneous estimation of multiple antibiotic residues from chicken samples using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)

Abstract

This study was designed to quantify the residual concentrations of some antibiotics such as oxytetracycline (tetracycline), ciprofloxacin (quinolones group), enrofloxacin (quinolones group) and levofloxacin (quinolones group) in broiler production systems. For the quantification of antibiotic residues (ARs), a rapid, simple and accurate method has been developed and validated for simultaneous identification and quantification of oxytetracycline, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin and levofloxacin residues in chicken muscles and livers by using reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). The proposed method showed good linearity with the determination of coefficient, r²=0.999 for each antibiotic and r²=1.0 for ciprofloxacin in the range of 1.25 –15.00 µg/mL with high sensitivity with detection limit (LOD) of 25 ppb, 34 ppb, 27 ppb and 29 ppb and quantitation limit (LOQ) of 83 ppb, 110 ppb, 89 ppb and 96 ppb for levofloxacin, oxytetracycline, nrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin, respectively. A total of 20 chickens (muscle and liver) were examined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Studied result revealed that oxytetracycline and levofloxacin were detected in 100% chicken samples whereas ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin were completely not detected in all the chicken samples. Oxytetracycline residues levels were above the Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) of 55% in chicken muscle and 75% in liver and levofloxacin was detected below Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) of 85% in muscle and 75% in liver in chicken samples. This study revealed that chicken samples contain antibiotic residues. The method was successfully applied to the
simultaneous quantitation of multiple antibiotic residues in pharmaceutical formulations or other sectors for the routine analysis.