Abstract
Antibiotic residue in chicken is a human health concern due to its harmful effects on consumer health. This study aims at screening the antibiotic residues from 80 chicken samples collected from farms located in different regions of Lebanon. An optimized multi-class method for identification and quantification of 30 antibiotics from four different chemical classes (sulfonamides, tetracyclines, quinolones, and beta-lactams) has been developed by using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. The evaluation of antibiotics residues in 80 chicken muscles samples has shown that 77.5% of samples were at least contaminated with antibiotics residues, out of which 53.75% were exposed to co-occurrence of multidrug residues. The screening of the four antibiotics families has shown that ciprofloxacin (quinolones) represents the highest occurrence percentage (32.5%), followed by amoxicillin (β-lactams) (22.5%) and then tetracyclines (17.5%). Means of sarafloxacin, amoxicillin, and penicillin G residues levels were above the Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) recommended limit according to the European Union EC. This study revealed that chicken samples collected from Lebanese farms contain antibiotic residues. Guidelines for prudent use of antimicrobials agents for chicken should be adopted to reduce the prevalence of resistant Salmonella in chicken.
Highlights
Over the last few decades, antibiotics have been widely used in animal husbandry, for their prophylactic and therapeutic purposes
While assessing the antibiotic residues in the chicken samples (Table 3), the results showed that none of the 30 antibiotics were detected in 22.5% of samples. 77.5% of samples were contaminated at least with one residue
The results showed that the mean values of sulphonamides in all the chicken samples were below the Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) established in Malaysia (0.1 μg/g) [24]
Summary
Over the last few decades, antibiotics have been widely used in animal husbandry, for their prophylactic and therapeutic purposes. It is to be noted that one-third of the antibiotics used in Europe are for veterinary application, with poultry and pigs livestock receiving the majority for their therapeutic purpose [1]. Antibiotics are essential to prevent and control infectious diseases. They are used illegally as feed supplements to stimulate animal growth and productivity [2,3]. The misuse and incorrect application of antibiotics carries the risk of their residues presence in edible tissues of the chicken, which can cause toxics and allergies in hypersensitive consumers [4]. Human exposure to high levels of antibiotics residues from animal sources may aggravate immunological response in low immune individuals and influence negatively the intestinal gut microbiota [5]
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