Rapid multiresidue and multi-class screening for antibiotics and benzimidazoles in feed by ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry

An analytical strategy was developed for high-throughput screening of multiple antibiotics and two benzimidazoles in feed. Generic sample processing was applied without any purification step. After methanol extraction, the samples were centrifuged, concentrated, and analysed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to tandem mass spectrometry in the multiple reaction monitoring mode. Qualitative validation was carried out for more than 50 antibacterials of various classes, including aminocoumarin, amphenicols, beta-lactams, lincosamide, macrolides, diaminopyrimidine, quinolones, sulfonamides, streptogramin, pleuromutilin, polypeptide, quinoxaline, and tetracyclines, and also some benzimidazoles in feed at μg/kg level. Validation was done in accordance with the guidelines laid down in European Commission Decision 2002/657/CE for qualitative screening methods. onvenient, reliable, and sensitive method has been used successfully to monitor antibiotic residues in feeds.