Abstract
In general, the Iraqi farmers of breeding and fattening of sheep using a broad-spectrum antibiotics like tetracycline and aminoglycosides family for treatment and prophylaxis without considering to the withdrawal periods of these drugs before slaughtering the animals. The aim of the present study was to determine the residues of streptomycin (member of aminoglycosides group) in sheep meat and edible tissues using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. A total of 88 samples including longissimus dorsi, diaphragmatic muscles, liver and kidney were collected from 22 sheep carcasses slaughtered in Duhok abattoir, Kurdistan, Iraq. The result revealed that streptomycin residues were found in 12 samples (54.5%) of the sheep carcasses distributed as following 36.36 %, 45.45 %, 22.72 % and 50 % of Longissimus dorsi, diaphragm muscle, liver and kidney samples., respectively. The minimal streptomycin concentration in ovine meat samples was 3.001 ppb and the maximum concentration was 690.307 ppb. The results of this study show that sheep meat, which is sold in Dohuk governorate, often contains the residues of antibiotics due to slaughtered animals might have been treated with veterinary drugs and the proper withdrawal period was not respected before slaughtering.
Highlights
Meat is one of the most important constituents of human diet as it provides proteins, energy, minerals and several B vitamins (Bender, 1992)
Eighty eight samples have been collected from 22 sheep carcasseswhich were slaughtered within one week of August 2013 in Duhokabattoir to analyze for streptomycin residue using competitive enzyme linked immunoassay (Shenzhen Lvshiyuan Biotechnology Co.,Ltd, China)
Out of 22 sheep carcasses inspected, streptomycin residues were observed in the following percentages of
Summary
Meat is one of the most important constituents of human diet as it provides proteins, energy, minerals and several B vitamins (Bender, 1992). Livestock production is growing rapidly as a result of the increasing demand for animal products (FAO, 2002).World population is projected to increase to 7.7 billion by the year 2020. Demand forfood protein of animal origin is expected to increase more rapidly than total population (Lineback et al, 1999).Today, antibiotics play a major role in modern agriculture andlivestock industries, and their use has been on the rise in many developed nations. One of the major uses of antibiotics in recent years is to enhance growth and feed efficiency in healthy livestock (Sarmah et al, 2006). Veterinary drugs, especially antibiotics are important, as beneficial compounds for animal health and animal welfare but as risks as well, being potential sources of residues in food of animal origin, when after administration of veterinary medicines to the animals the withdrawal time in relation to the maximum residue limit (MRL) is not taken into account (Vaarkamp, 2002)
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