Application and evaluation of a high-resolution mass spectrometry screening method for veterinary drug residues in incurred fish and imported aquaculture samples.

The ability to detect chemical contaminants, including veterinary drug residues in animal products such as fish, is an important example of food safety analysis. In this paper, a liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) screening method using a quadrupole-Orbitrap instrument was applied to the analysis of veterinary drug residues in incurred tissues from aquacultured channel catfish, rainbow trout, and Atlantic salmon and imported aquacultured products including European eel, yellow croaker, and tilapia. Compared to traditional MS methods, the use of HRMS with nontargeted data acquisition and exact mass measurement capability greatly increased the scope of compounds that could be monitored simultaneously. The fish samples were prepared for analysis using a simple efficient procedure that consisted of an acidic acetonitrile extraction followed by solid phase extraction cleanup. Two different HRMS acquisition programs were used to analyze the fish extracts. This method detected and identified veterinary drugs including quinolones, fluoroquinolones, avermectins, dyes, and aminopenicillins at residue levels in fish that had been dosed with those compounds. A metabolite of amoxicillin, amoxicillin diketone, was also found at high levels in catfish, trout, and salmon. The method was also used to characterize drug residues in imported fish. In addition to confirming findings of fluoroquinolone and sulfonamide residues that were found by traditional targeted MS methods, several new compounds including 2-amino mebendazole in eel and ofloxacin in croaker were detected and identified. Graphical Abstract Aquacultured samples are analyzed with a high-resolution mass spectrometry screening method to detect and identify unusual veterinary drug residues including ofloxacin in an imported fish.