Experimental Design Assisted HPLC/UV and LC-MS/MS for Simultaneous Determination of Selected Veterinary Antibiotics in Broiler Chicken

Antibiotics are used in the poultry industry to treat and prevent diseases. Their frequent use resulted in the appearance of antibiotic residuals in poultry meat, which is considered a serious public health issue. Among frequently used antibiotics are cefotaxime (CTX), ciprofloxacin (CIP), colistin (CST), doxycycline (DOX), flumequine (FLU), sulfamethoxazole (SMZ), trimethoprim (TMP) and tylosin (TYL). This study aimed to develop an optimized and validated method for concurrent estimation of the eight antibiotics in broiler chicken samples based on an easy extraction method followed by HPLC-UV and LC/MS/MS analysis. An experimental design was used for the optimization of the extraction procedure. Optimal conditions for separation were determined by using a central composite design after studying (1) mobile phase initial concentration, (2) column temperature, and (3) flow rate. The method was validated on the bases of ICH guidelines. The detection limits ranged from 3 to 5 µg kg−1 for HPLC- UV and ranged from 0.01 to 0.05 µg kg−1 for LC/MS/MS, while quantification limits ranged from 10 to 16 µg kg−1 for HPLC- UV and ranged from 0.01 to 0.11 µg kg−1 for LC/MS/MS. The chromatographic techniques were utilized for the analysis of spiked broiler chicken samples at a concentration range from 30 to 300 µg kg−1) for HPLC-UV and 0.01–20 µg kg−1 for LC/MS/MS. The proposed methods were used for quantification of the residues of the studied antibiotics in real broiler samples obtained from local supermarkets in Ismailia governorate, Egypt. The detected levels of residual antibiotics were within the permissible limits.