Immunochromatographic assay based on time-resolved fluorescent nanobeads for the rapid detection of sulfamethazine in egg, honey, and pork

Production and certification of BOTS-1: bovine muscle-certified reference material for incurred veterinary drug residues

A freeze-dried bovine muscle-certified reference material (CRM), known as BOTS-1 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.4224/crm.2018.bots-1 ), containing incurred residues of commonly used veterinary drugs was produced and certified for the mass fraction of eight veterinary drug residues. Value assignment was carried out using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) methods in conjunction with isotope dilution and standard addition approaches involving stable isotope internal standards. Data from the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety in Germany (BVL) were used for value assignment. Results for two drug residues were also obtained through an international inter-laboratory comparison CCQM-K141/P178 organized under the auspices of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM). Quantitative NMR (1H-qNMR) was used to characterize primary standards of all veterinary drugs certified. The certified mass fractions of the veterinary drug residues were 490 ± 100 µg/kg for chlorpromazine, 44 ± 4.4 µg/kg for ciprofloxacin, 3.3 ± 1.4 µg/kg for clenbuterol, 9.5 ± 0.8 µg/kg for dexamethasone, 57 ± 4.8 µg/kg for enrofloxacin, 3.0 ± 0.4 µg/kg for meloxicam, 12.4 ± 1.2 µg/kg for ractopamine, and 2290 ± 120 µg/kg for sulfadiazine with expanded uncertainties quoted (95% confidence) which include the effects due to between-bottle inhomogeneity, instability during long-term storage and transportation, and characterization.

Recent Advances in the Determination of Veterinary Drug Residues in Food

The presence of drug residues in food products has become a growing concern because of the adverse health risks and regulatory implications. Drug residues in food refer to the presence of pharmaceutical compounds or their metabolites in products such as meat, fish, eggs, poultry and ready-to-eat foods, which are intended for human consumption. These residues can come from the use of drugs in the field of veterinary medicine, such as antibiotics, antiparasitic agents, growth promoters and other veterinary drugs given to livestock and aquaculture with the aim of providing them as prophylaxis, therapy and for promoting growth. Various analytical techniques are used for this purpose to control the maximum residue limit. Compliance with the maximum residue limit is very important for food manufacturers according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or European Union (EU) regulations. Effective monitoring and control of drug residues in food requires continuous advances in analytical techniques. Few studies have been reviewed on sample extraction and preparation techniques as well as challenges and future directions for the determination of veterinary drug residues in food. This current review focuses on the overview of regulations, classifications and types of food, as well as the latest analytical methods that have been used in recent years (2020-2023) for the determination of drug residues in food so that appropriate methods and accurate results can be used. The results show that chromatography is still a widely used technique for the determination of drug residue in food. Other approaches have been developed including immunoassay, biosensors, electrophoresis and molecular-based methods. This review provides a new development method that has been used to control veterinary drug residue limit in food.

High-Sensitive FAM Labeled Aptasensor Based on Fe3O4/Au/g-C3N4 for the Detection of Sulfamethazine in Food Matrix

In this study, we developed a fluorescent aptasensor based on Fe₃O₄/Au/g-C₃N₄ and a FAM-labeled aptamer (FAM-SMZ1S) against sulfamethazine (SMZ) for the specific and sensitive detection of SMZ in food matrix. The FAM-SMZ1S was adsorbed by the Fe₃O₄/Au/g-C₃N₄ via π–π stacking and electrostatic adsorption, serving as a basis for the ultrasensitive detection of SMZ. Molecular dynamics was used to explain the reasons why SMZ1S and SMZ were combined. This aptasensor presented sensitive recognition performance, with a limit of detection of 0.16 ng/mL and a linear range of 1–100 ng/mL. The recovery rate ranged from 91.6% to 106.8%, and the coefficient of variation (CV) ranged from 2.8% to 13.4%. In addition, we tested the aptasensor for the monitoring of SMZ in various matrix samples, and the results were well-correlated (R² ≥ 0.9153) with those obtained for HPLC detection. According to these results, the aptasensor was sensitive and accurate, representing a potentially useful tool for the detection of SMZ in food matrix.

Lateral flow immunoassay based on dual spectral-overlapped fluorescence quenching of polydopamine nanospheres for sensitive detection of sulfamethazine

Herein, we propose a lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) based on the dual spectral-overlapped fluorescence quenching of polydopamine nanospheres (PDANs) caused by the inner filter effect to sensitively detect sulfamethazine (SMZ). The fluorescence quenching LFIA device consists of four parts: absorbent pad, polyvinyl chloride pad, sample pad, and nitrocellulose membrane. Compared with traditional quenchers such as gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with single spectral-overlapped quenching ability, PDANs can quench the excitation light and emission light of three fluorescence donors (aggregation-induced emission fluorescent microsphere, AIEFM; fluorescent microsphere, FM; and quantum dot bead, QB). The fluorescence intensity changes (ΔF) are numerically larger for PDANs-LFIA (ΔF_AIEFM = 2315, ΔF_FM = 979, ΔF_QB = 910) than those for AuNPs-LFIA (ΔF_AIEFM = 1722, ΔF_FM = 833, ΔF_QB =;520). AIEFM-based PDANs-LFIA exhibits a large ΔF (2315) in response to the changes in the SMZ concentration, and produces a high signal-to-noise ratio. The limit of detection (LOD) and visual LOD of LFIA based on PDANs quenching AIEFM for the detection of SMZ in chicken are 0.043 and 0.5 ng/mL, respectively. The results confirm that the proposed method can be used for the detection of hazardous materials in practical applications.

Technological Advancements for the Detection of Antibiotics in Food Products

Antibiotics, nowadays, are not only used for the treatment of human diseases but also used in animal and poultry farming to increase production. Overuse of antibiotics leads to their circulation in the food chain due to unmanaged discharge. These circulating antibiotics and their residues are a major cause of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), so comprehensive and multifaceted measures aligning with the One Health approach are crucial to curb the emergence and dissemination of antibiotic resistance through the food chain. Different chromatographic techniques and capillary electrophoresis (CE) are being widely used for the separation and detection of antibiotics and their residues from food samples. However, the matrix present in food samples interferes with the proper detection of the antibiotics, which are present in trace concentrations. This review is focused on the scientific literature published in the last decade devoted to the detection of antibiotics in food products. Various extraction methods are employed for the enrichment of antibiotics from a wide variety of food samples; however, solid-phase extraction (SPE) techniques are often used for the extraction of antibiotics from food products and biological samples. In addition, this review has scrutinized how changing instrumental composition, organization, and working parameters in the chromatography and CE can greatly impact the identification and quantification of antibiotic residues. This review also summarized recent advancements in other detection methods such as immunological assays, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-based assays, and biosensors which have emerged as rapid, sensitive, and selective tools for accurate detection and quantification of traces of antibiotics.

Ten Years of Lateral Flow Immunoassay Technique Applications: Trends, Challenges and Future Perspectives

The Lateral Flow Immunoassay (LFIA) is by far one of the most successful analytical platforms to perform the on-site detection of target substances. LFIA can be considered as a sort of lab-in-a-hand and, together with other point-of-need tests, has represented a paradigm shift from sample-to-lab to lab-to-sample aiming to improve decision making and turnaround time. The features of LFIAs made them a very attractive tool in clinical diagnostic where they can improve patient care by enabling more prompt diagnosis and treatment decisions. The rapidity, simplicity, relative cost-effectiveness, and the possibility to be used by nonskilled personnel contributed to the wide acceptance of LFIAs. As a consequence, from the detection of molecules, organisms, and (bio)markers for clinical purposes, the LFIA application has been rapidly extended to other fields, including food and feed safety, veterinary medicine, environmental control, and many others. This review aims to provide readers with a 10-years overview of applications, outlining the trends for the main application fields and the relative compounded annual growth rates. Moreover, future perspectives and challenges are discussed.

Immunochromatographic assay based on high-affine monoclonal antibody for the detection of imidocarb in milk

Imidocarb (IM) is an antiprotozoal agent, which is mainly used to treat babesiosis and piroplasmosis for animals. However, overdose or improbable utilization cause IM residues in animal origin products, which would be harmful to human health. Here, a monoclonal antibody (mAb) against IM with extremely sensitive and specific features has been successfully prepared from a novel immunogen synthesized by virtue of the active ester method. The concentration of half-maximal inhibition (IC₅₀ ) of the mAb was 0.074 ng/ml and the affinity constant was 4.58 × 10¹⁰ L/mol. On the basis of this condition, an immunochromatographic strip (ICS) is proposed that could be applied in milk samples to test IM rapidly. For the ICS, the visual detection limit (cut-off value) was 5 ng/ml, IC₅₀ was 0.4 ng/ml, the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.078 ng/ml, the linear detection scope was 0.117 to 1.37 ng/ml. The recovery rates ranged from 88.83% to 91.47% and coefficients of variation (CV) were in the spectrum of 7.31% to 9.43%. In general, the recommended test strip provided an exceedingly simple and reliable detection method for quickly testing the IM. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: In our joint efforts, an extremely sensitive monoclonal antibody against imidocarb was obtained and a test strip for the rapid detection of imidocarb in milk was developed. The developed method could be applied to the field and provided great potential for analytical of imidocarb in other matrixes.