Analysis of veterinary drug and pesticide residues in animal feed by high-resolution mass spectrometry: comparison between time-of-flight and Orbitrap

Abstract

The use of medium–high-resolution mass spectrometers (M–HRMS) provides many advantages in multi-residue analysis. A comparison between two mass spectrometers, medium-resolution (MRMS) time-of-flight (TOF) and high-resolution (HRMS) Orbitrap, has been carried out for the analysis of toxic compounds in animal feed. More than 300 compounds belonging to several classes of veterinary drugs (VDs) and pesticides have been determined in different animal feed samples using a generic extraction method. The use of a clean-up procedure has been evaluated in both instruments, and several validation parameters have been established, such as the matrix effect, linearity, recovery and sensitivity. Finally, both instruments have been used during the analysis of 18 different feed samples (including chicken, hen, rabbit and horse). Some VDs (sulfadiazine, trimethoprim, robenidine and monensin sodium) and one pesticide (chlorpyrifos) have been identified. In general, better results were obtained using the Orbitrap, such as sensitivity (1–12.5 µg kg⁻¹) and recovery values (60–125%). Moreover, this analyser had several software tools, which reduced the time for data processing and were easy to use, performing quick screening for more than 450 compounds in less than 5 min. However, some disadvantages such as the high cost and a decrease in the number of detected compounds at low concentrations must be taken into account.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• animal feed
• pesticide
• veterinary drug
• TOF
• Orbitrap

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and FEDER for financial support (Project Ref. AGL2010-21370). M.L.G.P. acknowledges her grant (F.P.I) (MINECO, Ref. AGL 2010-21370) for financial support. RRG is also grateful for personal funding through the “University Research Plan” (Almería University) and Cajamar.