Antibiotic residues in poultry products are still a potential threat to human health in most parts of the developing world. In depth knowledge of the presence of antibiotic residues would be beneficial to safeguard human health. Present study was undertaken to test the presence of antibiotic residues in poultry products in Peshawar city of Pakistan. One hundred samples of fresh (n=50) and frozen (n=50) poultry products from liver, thigh and breast muscle were randomly collected and analyzed. Positive samples were isolated using well diffusion method and tested for the presence of penicillin, ciprofloxacin, amoxicillin and Colistin sulphat residues using Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). More than half of fresh (53.3%) and frozen samples (42.2%) were confirmed positive for antibiotic residues. Concentration of antibiotic residues was higher in liver and thigh region compared to breast muscles. Among different antibiotics, the presence of penicillin was greater followed by amoxicillin in different meat products tested. Randomly collected eggs (n=100) have shown that more than half of the eggs (60%) were positive for presence of antibiotic residues. Albumins of the eggs were detected to accumulate higher (70%) antibiotic residues compared to yolk. This depict that most of the meat and egg produced in this region was highly contaminated with drug residues and needs serious attention and concrete measures are needed to minimize the incidence and level of drug residues to protect human health.
Keywords: Antibiotics residues, poultry meat, eggs