Antibiotics in Poultry Meat and Products' Residual Levels and Implications to Public Health

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Postgraduate at Department of Food Hygiene and Control, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni Suef 62511, Egypt.

2 Department of Food Hygiene and Control, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni Suef 62511, Egypt.

Abstract

The great overuse of antibiotics in poultry farms for the treatment of infections or as food additives to improve chicken growth is a major human health concern. Macrolide, tetracycline, quinolones, and beta-lactams are some of the most important antibiotics used in chicken farms and may have residues in their meat. Therefore, the current study was applied to investigate the antibiotic residues in a total of 400 samples of raw chicken breast, liver, nugget, burger, and luncheon (80 each) collected from retail markets and grocery stores in Beni-Suef governorate, Egypt. The results revealed that 72.5% of chicken breast samples had antibiotic residues. The screening of the four antibiotics families in chicken liver samples has shown that danofloxacin (quinolones) and streptomycin recorded the highest percentages (72.5% each), while the lowest one was recorded for penicillin (60%). Similarly, the highest levels of antibiotics in breast samples were for tetracycline, sarafloxacin and danfloxacin (63.75% each), while the lowest one was penicillin (53.75%). On the other hand, poultry products (nuggets, burger, and luncheon) were negative for antibiotic residues. The calculated estimated daily intakes (EDIs) for all examined antibiotics showed higher exposure levels than the fixed values of acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) which are a major health problem. Guidelines for the prudent use of antimicrobial agents for chicken should be adopted to reduce the prevalence of antibiotics resistance in human.

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