Prevalence of antibiotic residues in commercial milk and its variation by season and thermal processing methods

 In this study, the prevalence of antibiotic residues in pasteurized and sterilized commercial milk available in Shahre-kourd, Iran, was investigated. In addition, the influence of seasonal temperature changes on the prevalence of contamination was studied. 

 Commercial milk samples of 187, including 154 pasteurized and 33 sterilized, milk samples were collected from the market between early January 2012 and late July of the same year. The presence of antibiotic residues was detected using the microbiological detection test kit, Eclipse 100, as a semi-quantitative method. 

 The results showed that 37 of the samples (19.8%) have contained antibiotic residues above the European Union Maximum Residues Limits (EU-MRLs), of which 28 samples (14.97%) were found to be contaminated but at the concentrations below the EU-MRLs. There was no significant difference between the contamination rate of pasteurized and Ultra High Temperature (UHT)-sterilized samples. Similarly, variation of weather temperature with seasons had no effect on the contamination prevalence of milk samples ( P > 0.05). 

 Based on the result of this study, antibiotics residues were present in the majority of milk samples. Neither the season nor the type of thermal processing of the commercial milks had noticeable impact on the prevalence level of the milk samples. However, an increasing trend of prevalence level for antibiotic residues was observed with increasing the temperature through the warm season.