Target and non-target analytical method for potential hazardous substances in livestock and pet hair using liquid- and gas chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Abstract

Extraction using acetonitrile and water and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC and GC-QTOF/MS) techniques were used to screen for potential hazardous substances in livestock and pet hair. In addition, LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS techniques were used for verification of the analytical method and quantitative analysis of pesticides, veterinary drugs, mycotoxins and antioxidants in hair. Optimized sample preparation involves extracting 0.05 g of sample with 0.6 mL of ACN and 0.4 mL of distilled water. In addition, the two layers were separated by adding 0.1 g of NaCl. Then, both the ACN and water layers were analyzed by LC-TOF/MS, and the ACN layer was analyzed by GC-TOF/MS. Most of the matrix effects of livestock and pet hair were less than 50%, but some matrices and components showed high results, so matrix matching correction was applied for more precise quantification. Method validation was performed for 394 constituents (293 pesticides, 93 veterinary drugs, 6 mycotoxins and 2 preservatives) in dog, cat, cow and pig hair and chicken and duck feathers. All components showed good linearity (r2 ≥0.98) in the developed assay. The quantification limit of all compounds was set at 0.02 mg/kg, which is the lowest level that satisfies the recovery rate standard. The recovery experiment was repeated 8 times at 3 concentrations. Most of the components were extracted with the ACN layer, and the recovery rate was 63.35-119.98%. In order to confirm the efficiency of extracting harmful substances from actual samples, 30 hairs of livestock and pets were screened.