Background

Coccidiostat drugs are widely used as feed additives in the poultry industry to control and treat infection. Almost all the chickens have been treated with coccidiostats during their entire life and unknown to the consumer residues of these drugs may be present in high concentrations in both meat and eggs. Controlling residues of coccidiostat drugs in food present a major problem to regulatory authorities. Some of the coccidiostat drugs, for example the nitroimidazoles, have been banned from use due to their toxic properties.

These drugs are widely used in poultry production yet their residues are extremely difficult to measure. Despite the fact that it is now mandatory (96/23/EC) for member states to include coccidiostat residue monitoring in their national residue programmes a serious weakness exists due to a lack of suitable analysis methods. This problem was clearly highlighted in a recent survey conducted by the Community Reference Laboratory for coccidiostats and in a recent review of detection methods available for coccidiostat residues in poultry (1).

The central aim of the Poultry-check project (EU-project QLK1-CT-1999-00313, to be carried out during years 2000-2003) is to address these issues (2). Nitroimidazoles, halofuginone, toltrazuril, and nicarbazin have been selected as priorities for the analysis method development. High-throughput, multi-residue and user-friendly tests will be developed and validated. The system can be applied for rapid detection of toxic agents throughout the food chain and subsequently also other residues can be measured with the same system. Chemical methods are also going to be developed to confirm the findings of the screening assays.

References

1. Elliott, C.T., Kennedy, D.G., McCaughey, W.J. 1998. Methods for the detection of polyether ionophore residues in poultry. Analyst 123, 45R-56R
2. Tuomola, M., Elliott, C.T., Delahaut, Ph., van Rhijn, J.A., Alfredsson, G., Lövgren, T. (2000) Screening for coccidiostat residues in the poultry production: The poultry-check project. In: EuroResidue IV: Conference of residues of veterinary drugs in food. L.A. van Ginkel, A. Ruiter (Eds.), RIVM. Bilthoven, The Netherlands, pp. 1077-1080