Development of a multi-residue method for fast screening and confirmation of 20 prohibited veterinary drugs in feedstuffs by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

• 20 prohibited veterinary drugs.
• Multiclass drugs in swine, chicken and fish feedstuffs.
• QuEChERS approach.
• A sensitive and reliable LC–MS/MS method is firstly developed.

A simple multiresidue method was developed for detecting and quantifying twenty analytes from 5 classes of prohibited veterinary drugs (β-agonists (9), anabolic hormones (4), quinoxalines (4), tranquilizers (1), cyproheptadine, and clonidine in animal feeds using a QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) approach. Feed samples were extracted by ultrasonic-assisted extraction with a mixture of methanol–acetonitrile (50:50, v/v), followed by a cleanup using a dispersive solid-phase extraction with PSA (primary secondary amine). Target compounds were separated and determined by a liquid chromatography tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer operating in positive electrospray ionization mode, using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). The recoveries of these compounds were between 56.7% and 103% at three spiked levels. The repeatability was lower than 10%, whereas reproducibility was no more than 15% except for nandrolone (17% at 10 μg kg−1) and diazepam (19% at 10 μg kg−1). Decision limits (CCαs) and detection capabilities (CCβs) ranged from 0.42 to 5.74 μg kg−1 and 5.70–9.81 μg kg−1, respectively. The method was successfully applied to screening of real samples obtained from local feed markets and confirmation of the suspected target analytes.