Simultaneous Determination of Fluoroquinolones, Tetracyclines and Sulfonamides in Chicken Muscle by UPLC-MS-MS

A rapid and sensitive analytical method for the simultaneous determination of four fluoroquinolones, four tetracyclines and six sulfonamides in chicken muscle using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS-MS) has been developed and validated. Samples were extracted with McIlvaine buffer-acetonitrile, defatted with n-hexane, and analyzed by UPLC-MS-MS. Solvent delay technique was applied in the analysis to remove the non-volatile phosphate and carry out farther on-line SPE clean-up. Satisfactory recoveries (55-110%) of all the veterinary drugs were demonstrated in 1, 10 and 20 mu g kg(-1) spiked levels with the overall RSD for intra- and inter-day of 14 analytes less than 18%. The LOD and LOQ were 0.3 and 1.0 mu g kg(-1), respectively. Quantitative results of 103 real samples indicated that the present method was suitable for the quantitative analysis of real samples.