Development of an enzyme-linked immunoassay for the detection of gentamicin in swine tissues

We developed an enzyme-linked immunoassay that provides rapid and sensitive detection of gentamicin in swine tissues. Rabbit was immunized with gentamicin-BSA conjugate and antiserum was collected after the fifth immunization. After optimizing the concentration of immunoreagents, competitive indirect ELISA (ciELISA) gave an IC50 value of 0.98 ng/ml, while competitive direct ELISA (cdELISA) exhibited lower IC50 value of 0.92 ng/ml, thus cdELISA was further optimized under various pH values and ionic strengths of assay buffer, different coating methods and incubation time. The optimized ELISA can be completed within 45 min and it showed negligible cross-reactivity with other aminoglycosides. The recoveries of gentamicin from spiked swine tissues at levels of 25–200 μg/kg ranged from 64.7% to 101.2% with CVs of 4.5–12.1%, and the detection limits were 6.2 μg/kg in muscle, 3.6 μg/kg in liver and 2.7 μg/kg in kidney, respectively.