Development of a double immunochromatographic test system for simultaneous determination of lincomycin and tylosin antibiotics in foodstuffs

Abstract

This study is devoted to the development of a sensitive immunochromatographic analysis (ICA) for simultaneous determination of tylosin (TYL) and lincomycin (LIN) as antibiotics of the macrolide and lincosamide classes, widely used in animal husbandry and implicated in the contamination of foodstuffs. The ICA was implemented in an indirect competitive format, using antispecies antibodies conjugated with gold nanoparticles (GNPs) as a label. After the multistep optimization, the developed double ICA allowed for antibiotics detection with instrumental limits of detection/cutoff levels of 0.09/2 ng/mL and 0.008/0.8 ng/mL for TYL and LIN, respectively, within 10 min. The cross-reactivity was 40% to lincosamide clindamycin and negligible to other antibiotics tested. The test system allowed for the detection of TYL and LIN in milk, honey, and eggs. The recoveries of antibiotics from foodstuffs were 87.5-112.5%. The results demonstrate that the developed double ICA is an effective approach for the detection of other food contaminants.

Keywords: Antibiotics; Food safety; Immunochromatographic analysis; Lincomycin; Tylosin.