A Lateral Flow Immunoassay Kit for Detecting Residues of Four Groups of Antibiotics in Farmed Fish

A lateral flow immunoassay kit based on antigen-antibody interactions was developed to detect residues of beta-lactams, quinolones, tetracyclines, and sulfonamides in farmed fish. Group-specific antibodies showing cross-reactivity with other antibiotics in the same group were produced in rabbits. The rabbits were immunized eight times to obtain the maximum titers. Antibodies were extracted from the antisera collected from the immunized rabbits and produced group-specific reactions with antibiotics from the four groups. A kit was prepared that optimize conditions for the antigen-antibody reaction, using colloidal gold conjugated antibodies, and was designed to detect the four groups of antibiotics simultaneously. The kit enabled the detection of antibiotics in the four groups at below maximum residue limits (MRLs), which were $200{\mu}g/kg$ for tetracyclines, $100{\mu}g/kg$ for sulfonamides, $50{\mu}g/kg$ for beta-lactams, and $100{\mu}g/kg$ for quinolones. The cross-reactivity of the antibodies ranged from 10-80% for the sulfonamides, 20-100% for tetracyclines, 38-100% for quinolones, and 20-100% for the beta-lactams, confirming that the antibodies were group specific. The test kit was used 30 times to examine spiked antibiotics at the limits of detection (LODs) and all produced positive results, indicating high sensitivity. The LODs for the assay ranged from 4-20 ng/mL for beta-lactams, 25-50 ng/mL for sulfonamides, 20-100 ng/mL for tetracyclines, and 30-80 ng/mL for quinolones, and there were no false negative reactions at above these LODs. In addition, all of the LODs of the developed kit were correlated with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) data. Our lateral flow immunoassay kit can simultaneously detect antibiotic residues from a large number of fish samples rapidly, strengthening the safety of domestic farmed and imported fish.

어류 중 4계열 잔류 항생물질 검출을 위한 Lateral Flow Immunoassay Kit 개발