Normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of spiramycin in eggs and chicken

Development of a spiramycin sensor based on adsorptive stripping linear sweep voltammetry and its application for the determination of spiramycin in chicken egg samples

Herein, an adsorptive stripping linear sweep voltammetric technique was described to determine spiramycin, a macrolide antibiotic, using a carboxylic multiwalled glassy carbon electrode modified with carbon nanotubes. The main principle of the analytical methodology proposed was based on the preconcentration of spiramycin by open-circuit accumulation of the macrolide onto the modified electrode surface. As a result of the adsorption affinity of spiramycin to the modified surface, the sensitivity of the glassy carbon electrode was significantly increased for the determination of spiramycin. The electrochemical behavior of spiramycin was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry and the irreversible anodic peak observed was measured as an analytical signal in the methodology. The proposed electrochemical sensing platform was quite linear in the range of 0.100–40.0 µM of spiramycin concentration with a correlation coefficient of 0.9993. The limit of detection and the limit of quantification were 0.028 and 0.094 µM, respectively. The intra- and interday repeatability of the proposed sensor was within acceptable limits. Finally, the applicability of the electrochemical methodology was examined by determining the drug content of chicken egg samples spiked with spiramycin standard. A rapid and easy extraction technique was performed to extract spiked spiramycin from the egg samples. The extraction technique followed had good recovery values between 85.3 ± 4.0% and 93.4 ± 1.9%.

Simultaneous immunochemical detection of four banned antibiotic growth promoters in raw and cooked poultry tissue

Spiramycin, tylosin, bacitracin and virginiamycin are among a group of antibiotic growth promoters that have been banned in the European Union since the 1999 Council. This was due to concerns over the development of resistant bacteria emerging between humans and animals with the threat of antibiotics no longer being able to be used effectively to treat human infections. A sensitive and fast immunochemical method is presented for the determination of these four antibiotic growth promoters simultaneously in poultry tissue. The method employs methanol extraction followed by sample clean-up by solid-phase extraction (SPE) with determination by enzyme-linked immunoabsorbant assay (ELISA). The limit of detection (LOD) was less than 1 ng g(-1) and the detection capability (CCβ) was 3 ng g(-1) or less for all four antibiotic growth promoters. Validation was completed with both raw and cooked chicken, therefore either matrix could be used for the monitoring of these banned drugs. In a feeding trial no residues of either bacitracin or virginiamycin were found in medicated birds even without a withdrawal period. In the case of tylosin and spiramycin much higher residues level were detected immunochemically than was the case by mass spectrometry.

Mass spectrometric analysis of muscle samples to detect potential antibiotic growth promoter misuse in broiler chickens

Mass spectrometric methods were developed and validated for the analysis in chicken muscle of a range of antibiotic growth promoters: spiramycin, tylosin, virginiamycin and bacitracin, and separately for two marker metabolites of carbadox (quinoxaline-2-carboxylic acid and 1,4-bisdesoxycarbadox), and a marker metabolite of olaquindox (3-methyl-quinoxaline-2-carboxylic acid). The use of these compounds as antibiotic growth promoters has been banned by the European Commission. This study aimed to develop methods to detect their residues in muscle samples as a means of checking for the use of these drugs during the rearing of broiler chickens. When fed growth-promoting doses for 6 days, spiramycin (31.4 µg kg(-1)), tylosin (1.0 µg kg(-1)), QCA (6.5 µg kg(-1)), DCBX (71.2 µg kg(-1)) and MQCA (0.2 µg kg(-1)) could be detected in the muscle 0 days after the withdrawal of fortified feed. Only spiramycin could consistently be detected beyond a withdrawal period of 1 day. All analytes showed stability to a commercial cooking process, therefore raw or cooked muscle could be used for monitoring purposes.

Binding profile of spiramycin to oviducal proteins of laying hens

In vitro protein binding of spiramycin (SP) in the plasma and oviducts of laying hens was studied. The data for SP were compared with those for oxytetracycline (OTC), sulphadimidine (SDD), sulphamonomethoxine (SMM) and sulphaquinoxaline (SQ). The two oviduct segments, magnum (M) and isthmus plus shell gland (IS), were collected. The soluble (cell sap) fractions from the magnum (M-S9) and the isthmus plus shell gland (IS-S9) were used as samples. Plasma protein binding was highest for SQ (81.4%) (P < 0.01), and lowest for SDD (30.9%) (P < 0.01). No M-S9 protein binding of OTC was found. The IS-S9 protein binding of SP (60.4%) was very much higher than those of OTC (0.8%), SDD (4.1%), SMM (4.0%) and SQ (12.3%) (P < 0.01). Biological half-lives of these drugs in egg albumen were directly correlated to the extent of their binding to IS proteins. Of plasma, M-S9 and IS-S9, variation in SP concentration in the ranges from 1 to 20 micrograms/ml did not alter the binding properties of the drug.