Vol. 7, Issue 4 (2018)

Author(s):
J Ruth Sophila, G Dhinakar Raj, K Kumanan, G Sarath Chandra and S Vairamuthu

Abstract:
Food safety is a prime requirement for consumers. One of the key challenges to ensure food safety is the availability of fast, sensitive and reliable methods to identify specific hazards like antibiotic residues. A microbial inhibition assay (MIA) was optimizedusing vegetative form of Geobacillus stearothermophilus as indicator organism to screen for the presence of antibiotic residues in chicken meat. The spectrum of sensitivity to antibiotics was wide with Geobacillus stearothermophilus and B. subtilis while E. coli was resistant to 3/16 antibiotics screened. The limit of detection (LOD) was 1 ppb for enrofloxacin and 0.5 ppb for ciprofloxacin and oxytetracycline. A total of 360 tissue samples collected from enrofloxacin or oxytetracycline -fed experimental broilers were screened with the developed MIA. Highest percentage of positive samples was detected in skin followed by breast muscle in either oxytetracycline or enrofloxacin-fed chickens. This test can be used as a preliminary screening assay to detect the presence of any antibiotic residue qualitatively.