MULTICLASS RESIDUES SCREENING OF 105 VETERINARY DRUGS IN MEAT, MILK, AND EGG USING ULTRA HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY TANDEM QUADRUPOLE TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROMETRY

Abstract

A high-throughput and robust method for analyzing multiclass residues of veterinary drugs in meat, milk, and egg by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)–quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (QTOF) was established. The method successfully applied to the screening, quantification, and confirmation of 105 compounds from 9 different classes of drugs, including beta-agonists, benzimidazoles, corticoides, triphenylmethane, nitromidazoles, quinolones, sulfonamides, tetracylines, and benzodiazepams. The samples are extracted by a single extraction using acetonitrile containing 0.1% formic acid, followed by an easy solid phase extraction (SPE) clean-up on HLB column and finally analyzed by LC/MS QTOF MS. The separation was achieved within 30 min at the optimized chromatographic conditions. More than 92% compounds in this study can be reliably identified based on accurate mass measurement (within the 3 ppm mass error) at the 5 µg/kg concentration levels in the complex food matrix with further MS/MS confirmation. Our study demonstrated a reliable, high-efficient and high-sensitive strategy for the fast and high throughput screening of multiclass of veterinary drugs in foodstuffs of animal origin.

Keywords:

• multiclass
• residue analysis
• screening
• time of flight mass spectrometry
• ultra-high performance liquid chromatography
• veterinary drugs

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge the financial support by the Shanghai Technical Standard Project (No. 08DZ0505200 and 09DZ0503700), Scientific and Technical Project of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China (No. 2009IK134) and AQSIQ public benefit project (No. 201010073-04). We acknowledge assistance from the Agilent Technologies (China) for the instrument set up and operation (LC/MS TOF).