LC-HRMS based metabolomics screening model to detect various β-agonists treatments in bovines.

A study was performed to determine if untargeted metabolomics of urine could be used to establish a predictive tool for identifying β-agonists misuse in cattle. Although prohibited for more than 20 years within the EU, growth promoting practices for livestock fattening purposes are still suspected. Methods based on gas- or liquid chromatography coupled to (tandem) mass spectrometry are today considered as the state-of-the-art to monitor, in a targeted approach, residues of known drugs. To overcome the detection of anabolic practices, new synthetic xenobiotic growth promoters have been designed and new ways of applications, such as the administration of low dose cocktails, have been developed. In this context, innovative screening strategies are urgently needed to enable efficient control of such practices. Omic technologies have recently shown their relevance in highlighting physiological response resulting from anabolic compounds administration. LC-HRMS based metabolomics is one of the approaches allowing profiling biological matrices to reveal biological effects of a drug. In the present work, a metabolomics study performed on urine samples collected in the frame of several independent experiments involving different animals, different β-agonists treatments and different parameters (doses, compounds mixture, treatment length), allowed highlighting biomarkers of interest and implementing a robust statistical model to predict for β-agonists treated bovines. Performances of the proposed model fit with EU requirements for screening methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]