Abstract
Poultry meat and eggs are vital sources of protein for human consumption worldwide. The use of several nutritional and medicinal products, including antibiotics, is crucial for efficient and safe poultry production. Accumulation of drug residues in meat and eggs from inappropriate drug use is a major concern to public health. Recently, enrofloxacin was detected (2.4–3.8 ppb) in edible eggs produced in Jeju Island, Korea. Although the farm from which the enrofloxacin-contaminated eggs were collected did not use enrofloxacin-containing products, they reported extensive use of a nutritional product (NPJ). Accordingly, in this study, we investigated whether enrofloxacin contamination had occurred accidentally in various widely used veterinary pharmaceutical products. Enrofloxacin content (4.57–179.08 ppm) in different lots of the NPJ was confirmed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis. Furthermore, 76 veterinary pharmaceutical products that are widely used in poultry farms in Korea and claim to not contain enrofloxacin were collected and analyzed by LC-MS/MS. Among them, a florfenicol product and a sulfatrimethoprime product were found to contain 3.00 and 0.57 ppm enrofloxacin, respectively. These results suggest that appropriate manufacturing standards are not being followed and that strict monitoring of drug manufacturing is necessary in Korea to avoid drug contamination.
Highlights
Poultry meat and eggs are important foods for fulfilling the dietary needs of the ever-growing human population
When enrofloxacin is administered to some food-producing animals, such as poultry, it can be metabolized to ciprofloxacin [7]
The contents of enrofloxacin in different veterinary medicinal and nutritional products were determined by analyzing samples using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS)
Summary
Poultry meat and eggs are important foods for fulfilling the dietary needs of the ever-growing human population. Regulatory agencies of many countries operate residue management programs (e.g., the National Residue Program [NRP] of the United States of America, the NRP of Korea (KNRP), and the National Residue Survey of Australia) for managing the risk of drug residues in animal and plant products [3,4,5]. The close relationship between fluoroquinolone drugs in veterinary medicine and their use in human medicine may increase the risk of fluoroquinolone resistance being transferred from animals to humans. In some studies, the use of enrofloxacin in poultry production has shown to induce fluoroquinolone resistance in Campylobacter jejuni, which can be transferred to humans and contribute to treatment failure of Campylobacterosis in humans via poultry exposure [8,9]
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