Monitoring of Tetracycline Group Antibiotic Residues in Various Food Products of Animal Origin in the Turkish Market

Abstract

The aim of this study was to detect the presence of antibiotic residues in foods of animal origin, including 42 pieces of chicken gizzard and 46 pieces of bovine kidney and 102 chicken eggs belonging to various brands. These samples were gathered from December 2020 to April 2021 in the Aegean province of Turkey. A sensitive, simple, rapid, experimentally convenient and cost effective RP-LC method with high recovery output was developed. The method was thoroughly validated for the optimized parameters and produced satisfactory results. The analysis of bovine offal by the developed RP-LC method showed the presence of oxytetracycline, tetracycline, and chlortetracycline residues in 14 (30.43%) kidney samples. Chlortetracycline was detected in 7 (16.67%) chicken gizzard samples. In addition, the analysis of chicken eggs revealed the presence of oxytetracycline and tetracycline residues in nine egg samples (8.82%). Since, the amount of antibiotic residues in these samples was below the detection limit, quantification could not be carried out. Only one (0.98%) of the 102 egg samples exceeded the MRL (267.1 mg/kg) for oxytetracycline concentration. According to the study's overall findings, it is recommended that tetracycline antibiotics should be regularly checked in a variety of foods made from animals because they were found in 32 out of 190 analysed samples. Tetracycline residues may pose dangers to human health, so it's important to conduct further research and more information should be given for both producers and consumers.