Drug Residues in Cattle and Buffalo Meat in Peshawar

Antibiotic residues in beef are potential threat to human health in many developing countries such as Pakistan.In depth knowledge on the presence and quantification of antibiotic residues would be beneficial to safeguard human health. The present study was conducted to analyze the level of antibiotic residues in cattle and buffaloe meat.Samples from 40 slaughtered cows and buffaloes were randomlycollected. From each animal samples were collected from liver, kidney and thigh muscles. Positive samples were identified by microbial bioassay and werefurther analyzed for the commonly used antibiotics: penicillin, streptomycin, enrofloxacin and oxytetracycline using Thin Layer Chromatography.Microbial bioassay test results revealed that overall 21% of the meat samples had detectable antibiotic residues. Buffalo meat had higher (23.3%) antibiotic residues than cattle (18.8%). Within the body parts, the highest (24%) numbers of positive samples for antibiotic residues were observed in liver, followed by kidney (21.1%) and thigh muscles (17.5%). Thin layer chromatography technique showed that enrofloxacin (35.6%) and oxytetracycline (32.7%) was the predominant antibiotic, whereaspenicillin and penicillin plus streptomycin were found in 4.3% and 12.1% of the samples, respectively. Analysis of beef samples in Peshawar indicated that meat is highly contaminated with antibiotic residues and needs serious attention and concrete measures to minimize the incidence and level of antibiotic residues to protect human health.

Key words: Antibiotic residues, Beef, Microbial bioassay and Thin layer chromatography