Quantitating antibiotics and insecticides in poultry is serious business. Overuse can lead to antibiotic resistance while insecticide residuals can cause harmful side effects in humans. In the United States, for example, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), has offered up a plan to limit common antibiotics in feed, which are used to encourage growth. However, this is a voluntary plan, and as the following application note, “Quantitation of Antibiotics and Insecticides in Poultry Feed using LC-MS/MS,” points out, antibiotics have been shown to accumulate in poultry feathers, which are in turn used for nutritional elements in the feed.  Therefore, as the government agency works on getting suppliers on board with the new plan, scientists are working on a testing method of their own which detects nine antibiotics and four insecticides in poultry feed including:

• Fluoroquinolones
• Sulfonamides
• Amphenicols
• Macrolides
• Quinolones

Perhaps you have seen this study, but just in case you missed it, we have included the full report in the Food & Beverage Compendium, which is now available for download.Download the Food & Bev Compendium >

Application Note at a Glance: To give you more insight into this application note and others like it in the compendium, consider how poultry feed contains many nutritional ingredients. Researchers had to design a method that included a hefty extraction method and clean-up efforts. As a result, they designed a single method to quantify a wide selection of antibiotics and insecticides in poultry feed using a QTRAP® 5500 for detection. Want to see how the extraction/sample prep was carried out? These experimental conditions along with separation and MS/MS detection are included within the compendium (pages 121 to 125). 

The Food & Beverage Compendium is full of similar studies on topics including:

• Antibiotics
• Allergens
• Pesticides
• Authenticity
• Mycotoxins
• Vitamins
• Packaging

Discover where science is taking Food and Beverage with this FREE, and Informative Compendium.