Abstract
Antibiotic residue in meat is a serious public health concern due to its harmful effects on consumer health. This study aimed at estimating the residue levels of four commonly used antibiotics in meat samples using three analytical methods (ELISA, TLC and HPLC). A total of 150 samples of raw meat from sales points were analysed for ciprofloxacin, streptomycin, tetracycline, and sulphanilamide residues. Overall, ELISA analysis showed that 56, 34, 18, and 25.3% of the samples tested positive for ciprofloxacin, streptomycin, sulphanilamide and tetracycline residues respectively while TLC and HPLC detected 21.4, 29.4, 92.5, and 14.6%, and 8.3, 41.1, 88.8, and 14.6% of the samples as containing the residues, with ciprofloxacin and sulphanilamide having the lowest and highest occurrence, respectively. Furthermore, the concentrations of antibiotic residues were in the ranges of 19.8–92.8, 26.6–489.1, 14.2–1280.8, and 42.6–355.6 μg/kg with ELISA, while HPLC detected concentration ranges of 20.7–82.1, 41.8–320.8, 65.2–952.2 and 32.8–95.6 μg/kg for sulphanilamide, tetracycline, streptomycin, and ciprofloxacin, respectively. Mean ciprofloxacin and streptomycin residue levels were above the Codex/SA MRL recommended limit, while 3% of the samples contained multidrug residues. Although some of the mean residues levels were below the permissible limits, the co-occurrence of multidrug residues in some of the samples calls for concern.
Highlights
Antibiotics are commonly used in veterinary medicine, and subsequently drug residues may persist in foods derived from animals, which may pose adverse health effects for the consumer [1,2].Human exposure to significant levels of antibiotic residues from animal products may aggravate immunological responses in susceptible individuals and negatively affect intestinal microbiota [3].Generally, consumption of meat in South Africa was estimated to be25.73 kg/person/year and 29.69 kg/person/year for white meat in 2007–2008 [4]
ELISA analysis showed that 56, 34, 18, and 25.3% of the sample tested positive for the four antibiotic residues ciprofloxacin, streptomycin, sulphanilamide, and tetracycline residues respectively
Streptomycin residue levels in the meat samples ranged between 14.2 and 1280.8 μg/kg with a mean concentration of 647.09 μg/kg which is higher than the international maximum residue limits (MRL) value of 600 μg/kg, and the maximum concentration found in beef kidney was above the Codex/South Africa (SA) MRL permissible limit of 1000 μg/kg (Table 2)
Summary
Antibiotics are commonly used in veterinary medicine, and subsequently drug residues may persist in foods derived from animals, which may pose adverse health effects for the consumer [1,2].Human exposure to significant levels of antibiotic residues from animal products may aggravate immunological responses in susceptible individuals and negatively affect intestinal microbiota [3].Generally, consumption of meat (especially red meat) in South Africa was estimated to be25.73 kg/person/year and 29.69 kg/person/year for white meat in 2007–2008 [4]. Human exposure to significant levels of antibiotic residues from animal products may aggravate immunological responses in susceptible individuals and negatively affect intestinal microbiota [3]. Sulphonamides are widely used for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes in both humans and animals. They can be used as additives in animal feed because prolonged ingestion of sulphonamides may have a growth-promoting effect [7,8]. Due to growing demands for meat production, several agents have been employed for animal treatment and for growth promotion. The misuse of this antibiotic can lead to antimicrobial residues [6,9,10]
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