Determination of Sulfonamide Antibiotic Residues in Milk, Meat, and Egg Using ELISA Method

Nowadays, antibiotics residues are one of the major issues that food industry has to confront. Various side effects due to inappropriate application of antibiotics could be mentioned, including metabolic disorders, toxic and stimulatory reactions, as well as hypersensitivity and allergy. This descriptive study was performed on 540 samples of raw cow milk (n= 80), cow meat (n= 50), sheep meat (n= 50), cow liver (n= 50), cow kidney (n= 50), sheep liver (n= 50), sheep kidney (n= 50), chicken meat (n= 80), and hen eggs (n= 80). The samples were randomly collected from the milk collecting centers, slaughterhouses, and butcheries in addition to markets in Esfahan, Iran, during 2013-2014. Finally, the amount of sulfonamide residues in samples was investigated using the ELISA method. The results of this study demonstrated that 58 samples (10.48%) out of all the 540 ones contained sulfonamide antibiotic. Regarding the different samples, 25%, 20%, 12%, 12%, 6%, 5%, 4%, and 2% of sheep meat, cow kidney, cow liver, cow milk, chicken meat, sheep liver, hen egg, and sheep kidney samples were contaminated by sulfonamides, respectively.
The concentration of antibiotic residues in the samples was obtained as 7.34-172.24 ng/g. Furthermore, the level of sulfonamide antibiotic residues was significantly higher in chicken meat, compared to the other products (P<0.05). According to the findings of the present study, it is essential that all the food products with animal origin, such as meat, raw milk, and eggs be evaluated extensively and accurately concerning the drug residues