Acronym NA
Category
Aquaculture
Title Detection and quantification of antimicrobials in fish and in waters from aquaculture Programme Nat. Programme (supported by ESIF)
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National-European Coordinator Goreti Sales Coordinator email goreti.sales@gmail.com
Coordinator institution
ICETA - Institute of Sciences, Technologies and Agroenvironment (Portugal)
Institutions involved
LAQV-REQUIMTE - Associated Laboratory for Green Chemistry (Portugal) ,
ISEP - Porto Superior Institute of Engineering (Portugal) ,
Start year 2007 End year 2011 Funding (€) € 131,553 Website http://www.isep.ipp.pt/biomark/index.php?page=ptdc-agr-aam-68359-2006 Summary Industrial aquaculture represents an important sector of the Portuguese economy, producing mostly Common seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax), Gilthead seabream (Sparus auratus) and Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fish species. This sector is continuously growing worldwide due to increasing productions. In modern systems of intensive animal production veterinary drugs are employed for therapeutic, prophylactic and growth promotion purposes. Among pharmaceuticals, antimicrobial drugs are of particular concern due to their intensive use. The estimated annual consumption of antimicrobials in the EU for animal production is around 5000 metric tons. The occurrence of unwanted residues in edible products can be the result of illegal use, in the cases of banned compounds, or of failure to respect the proper withdrawal times before butchering, in the cases of permitted compounds. For antimicrobials, food contamination with residues of these compounds or at the aquatic environment is of special concern because they can induce bacterial resistance through continuous exposure, which results in untreatable diseases. This is a tremendous global problem and the consumption of food contaminated with residues of these drugs constitutes a public health threat. The use of antimicrobials is now fully regulated but their control requires high cost analyses. Therefore, this project aims to establish simple methods for screening and quantification of antimicrobials and other non-allowed compounds at the aquaculture sector in alternative to immunoassays or microbiologic procedures that generally fail to accomplish their objectives. Of paramount importance, the possibility to offer to the producers nearly inexpensive methods to assist them in determining the proper withdrawal times before butchering is given. Antimicrobials selected are tetracyclines, quinolones and sulfonamides, the ones that seem most used in this sector. Unwanted compounds, selected also by the regimen of use, are green malachite, nitrofurans and chloramphenicol. Samples considered at this project are: (1) Life cultured fishes from the previously mentioned species; (2) Water from tank they are in; (3) And waters flowing down stream. Prior to analysis itself, suitable procedures for collection and pre-treating samples are selected. With regard to fish, extraction procedures by mechanical shake-out extraction, sonication, soxhlet, and microwave-assisted extraction are addressed for fish meat. This last strategy reduces the volume of organic solvents, which subsequently decreases emission of toxic effluents to the environment. Pre-concentration or cleaning-up strategies are also pointed out for complex samples of low analyse concentration. Chemical derivatization of analyses may be required for conditioning samples to the determining step. Chemical sensors are suggested as detection devices. These are based in optical or electrical recognition elements. The former ones, usually recognized as optodes, are prepared after fibre-optic technology. The electrical sensors are meant for both voltammetric and potentiometric readings. Biosensing devices are also addressed for an increased selectivity. Evaluation, optimization and selection of main experimental variables are reported for all systems with the purpose of obtaining suitable operating characteristics. Previously established methods are also carried out on-line by means of flow-injection and sequential-injection analysis techniques. These analytical tools enable automation of experimental procedures, decreasing human intervention and exposure of an operator to toxic compounds. Other attractive features are their low cost and easy re-configuration, as well as the attainment of high sampling-rates. This turns the proposed methods more attractive and suitable for routine analysis. All batch and flow methods proposed are used to monitor fish and waters from aquaculture. These methods can constitute excellent alternatives to immunoassays and microbiologic screening procedures currently used. Analytical results must be validated after comparison with reference methodologies. These make use of molecular spectrometric detection, namely liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In this case, procedures are fully validated according to the defined criteria on Commission Decision 2003/657/EC before use.
(1) To proposed validated analytical methods for the control of farmed fish and its water surrounding environment; (2) Monitor levels of tetracyclines, quinolones and sulphonamides with established maximum residue limits; (3) Monitor levels of chloramphenicol, malachite green and nitrofurans, not allowed substances in fish meat.
Keywords
Food safety;
Antimicrobials;
Seabream;
Seabass;
Land-based aquaculture;
Trout;
Waste water;
Fish;
Monitoring;
Environmental impact;
Engineering;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
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