Abstract

Quinolones are broad-spectrum synthetic antimicrobial agents used in the treatment of bacterial infection of livestock and in aquaculture. An simple and efficient analytical method consisting of the liquid - liquid extraction, the separation on the C18 reversed phase column and the analysis with microQTOF mass spectrometer was developed to identify and determine simultaneously eight quilonones (norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, lomefloxacin, danofloxacin, enrofloxacin, oxolinic acid, nalidixic acid and flumequine) in chicken, pork, shrimp and red tilapia. The obtained recoveries are from 81.1 to94.8 % for chicken, 73.2 to 96.5 % for shrimp (except for flumequine 50.6 %) and 89.6 to 113.2 % for red tilapia. The limits of detection and quantification are from 0.1 to 1.3 ng.g-1 and from 0.4 to 4.3 ng.g-1 respectively. The method was applied to analyze these quilonones in chicken, pork, shrimp, red tilapia samples.