Short communication: Rapid antibiotic screening tests detect antibiotic residues in powdered milk products

Rapid antibiotic screening tests are widely used in the dairy industry to monitor milk for the presence of antibiotic residues above regulated levels. Given the persistent concern over contamination of milk products with antibiotic residues, we investigated the utility of IDEXX Snap test devices (IDEXX Laboratories Inc., Westbrook, ME) as tools for detecting antibiotic residues in powdered milk products. Five powdered milk products were reconstituted according to manufacturer specification with distilled water: Carnation (Nestlé USA Inc., Solon, OH), Nido youth and Nido adult (Nestlé Mexico Inc., Mexico City, Mexico), ELK (Campina, Eindhoven, the Netherlands), and Regilait (Saint-Martin-Belle-Roche, France). Positive samples were generated by spiking reconstituted milk with penicillin G, cephapirin, or tetracycline to either the European Union-regulated maximum residue limit or the FDA-regulated safe/tolerance level, whichever was lower. Control, unspiked negative milk samples and positive samples were tested with appropriate IDEXX Snap test kits (penicillin G and cephapirin with New Beta-Lactam, tetracycline with New Tetracycline). All samples yielded definitive results consistent with expectations, and there were no instances of false-positive or false-negative readings. These results suggest that both the New Beta-Lactam and New Tetracycline IDEXX Snap test kits effectively detect antibiotic residues in commercially available powdered milk samples and are useful tools for monitoring antibiotic residues in reconstituted powdered milk products.