A survey of chloramphenicol residues in aquatic products of Shenzhen, South China

ABSTRACT

Food safety is a top priority of concern for consumers. To promote growth, as well as to treat diseases which occur in aquaculture, antibiotics, even banned veterinary antibiotics, are widely used. This survey investigated the levels of chloramphenicol (CAP) by LC-MS/MS in 291 aquatic samples (all the products in this survey were local sales, exported products were not included), including shellfish, shrimp and fish, from Shenzhen, South China. The CAP concentrations in these samples (based on wet weight) were: shellfish (<LOD-205 µg kg⁻¹, mean: 68.8 µg kg⁻¹); shrimp (<LOD-2.2 µg kg⁻¹, mean: 0.5 µg kg⁻¹) and fish (<LOD-1.9 µg kg⁻¹, mean: 0.7 µg kg⁻¹). The highest concentration of CAP was found in shellfish samples (Mactra veneriformis, 205 µg kg⁻¹), these levels were greater than those reported in aquatic products from other locations in China. The detection rate of CAP was 37.2% in shellfish samples (64/172), 13.6% in shrimp samples (3/22) and 16.5% in fish samples (16/97). The detection rate of CAP in shellfish samples was higher than that in fish and shrimp samples, and therefore food safety in this region cannot be ignored. The results obtained from the current study indicated a high incidence of CAP in aquatic products in this region and argue for stronger market supervision and regulation in China.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Survey
• chloramphenicol
• aquatic products
• South China

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Key Project of Occupational Health and Poisoning Control (No. 20160825A041006), Shenzhen San-Ming Project (No. SZSM201809085) for financial support. Xiaodong Wen gratefully acknowledges the financial support for this project from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21964001). Zhiqiang Tan gratefully acknowledges the financial support for this project from the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFC1602305).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interest or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 21964001]; Key Project of Occupational Health and Poisoning Control [20160825A041006]; Shenzhen San-Ming Project [SZSM201809085]; National Key R&D Program of China [2018YFC1602305].