High-performance liquid chromatography method validation for determination of tetracycline residues in poultry meat

Background: In this study, a method for determination of tetracycline (TC) residues in poultry with the help of high-performance liquid chromatography technique was validated. Materials and Methods: The principle step involved in ultrasonic-assisted extraction of TCs from poultry samples by 2 ml of 20% trichloroacetic acid and phosphate buffer (pH 4), which gave a clearer supernatant and high recovery, followed by centrifugation and purification by using 0.22 μm filter paper. Results: Validity study of the method revealed that all obtained calibration curves showed good linearity ( r 2 > 0.999) over the range of 40-4500 ng. Sensitivity was found to be 1.54 and 1.80 ng for oxytetracycline (OTC) and TC. Accuracy was in the range of 87.94-96.20% and 72.40-79.84% for meat. Precision was lower than 10% in all cases indicating that the method can be used as a validated method. Limit of detection was found to be 4.8 and 5.10 ng for OTC and TC, respectively. The corresponding values of limit of quantitation were 11 and 12 ng. Conclusion: The method reliably identifies and quantifies the selected TC and OTC in the reconstituted poultry meat in the low and sub-nanogram range and can be applied in any laboratory.