Development of a new fluorescence immunochromatography strip for detection of chloramphenicol residues in chicken muscles

BACKGROUND Chloramphenicol (CAP), an antimicrobial drug that is widely used in animal feed, would have a negative effect on human health due to its low elimination rate and relatively high residue in animal food. It is important to develop a rapid and economic method to determine CAP in animal food to ensure that human health is not affected. RESULTS A new fluorescence immunochromatography strip was developed and established for the detection of CAP residue in chicken muscles for the first time. A CAP–bovine serum albumin conjugate, monoclonal antibody and polyclonal antibody against CAP were applied to constitute a fluorescence immunochromatography strip. The fluorescence intensity was detected by a charge-coupled device scanner and transformed to a digital value. The CAP linearity working range was from 0.1 ng mL−1 to 20 ng mL−1 with a limit of detection of 0.1 ng mL−1 within 10 min. The performance of the strip assay was compared with a commercial ELISA kit and the correlation coefficient was 0.99, which indicated that the new strip assay had a good quantification ability for CAP. CONCLUSION The fluorescence immunochromatography strip was successfully applied to the detection of CAP residues in chicken samples. To our knowledge, it is the first report regarding the development of a fluorescence immunochromatography method for screening CAP in animal samples. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry