Review Article Open Access

Review on Antibiotic Residue in Animal Food, their Detection Methods and Public Health Impact

Abstract

Antibiotics are used in therapeutics, and prophylaxis of infectious diseases or as a production aid in the food animals. After their administration to animals, such treatments leave residues in the tissues of these animals and the foods derived from them which results in public health impact. Generally, this review emphasizes on detection methods of veterinary drug residue in food of animal origin and its public health impact. Screening and confirmatory analyses of drug residue are needed to ensure the safety of animal derived food. The most frequently used screening methods for antimicrobial are microbiological inhibition assays, immunoassays and biosensor tests. The microbiological methods used for detecting antimicrobial residues in foodstuffs are based on inhibiting microbial growth, microbial receptor activity and enzymatic reactions. The immunological techniques work on the principle of antigen antibody interactions and it is usually very specific and helps in detecting residues from in food producing animals and ELISA is the most common method. Biosensors have been developed in recent years as an alternative approach to screen veterinary drugs residues in animal derived food. Confirmatory methods are methods that provide full or complementary information enabling the substance to be unequivocally identified and if necessary quantified at the level of interest. Liquid Chromatograph Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) is a very sophisticated, technique used as quantitative as well for confirmation of veterinary drug residues in animal derived foods products. Coupling of HPLC with Mass Spectrometry (MS-MS) has resulted in substantial reduction of analysis time for confirmation in presumed positive samples after initial screening. The presence of drug residues in foods of animal origin, combined with failure to comply with the instructions for their use or poor livestock production practices, can have serious consequences for consumer health. Therefore, residue control strategy is based on the detection of residues using sensitive tests with a low rate of false negatives followed by confirmation, requiring quantification against the MRL and identification with a low rate of false positives is very crucial.

Hunde Wayuma, Biyansa Adugna*

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