Simultaneous determination of antibiotics and amantadines in animal-derived feedstuffs by ultraperformance liquid chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometry

In this study, a method for simultaneous determination of 40 antibiotics from 6 different drug families (7 quinolones, 5 penicillins, 8 macrolides, 2 lincosamides, 4 tetracyclines, and 13 sulfonamides) and 3 amantadines in animal-derived feedstuffs (ADF) through ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry using a new lipid-removing solid-phase extraction column PRiME HLB was developed. The sample was extracted with 20 mL extraction solution and then purified and concentrated with PRiME HLB. The eluent was evaporated to dryness under nitrogen and analyzed with LC-MS/MS using acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid as the mobile phase via gradient elution. Under the optimum conditions, recoveries were 65.8% to 104.4% with a relative standard deviation of <15% at spiked levels of 5.0 μg/kg to 100 μg/kg. The limits of detection ranged from 0.5 μg/kg to 5 μg/kg. 15 of the 43 drugs were found in ADF. Sulfonamides, fluoroquinolones, macrolides, tetracyclines, and amantadines were detected, with the highest levels reaching 325 μg/kg.