Determination of nitroxynil residues in tissues and bovine milk by immunobiosensor

Nitroxynil is an anthelmintic drug mainly used for the control of liver fluke in sheep and cattle. The European Commission has established maximum residue limits in bovine and ovine muscle (400 µg kg(-1)), fat (200 µg kg(-1)), liver (20 µg kg(-1)) and kidney (400 µg kg(-1)), and more recently in bovine and ovine milk (20 µg kg(-1)). To ensure that these limits are not exceeded through incorrect use of the drug, it is necessary to monitor samples using robust and reliable methods capable of low-level detection. An inexpensive and rapid immunobiosensor-based screening procedure, capable of high sample throughput, was developed that is capable of detecting nitroxynil at <10 µg kg(-1) in bovine milk, at <10 µg kg(-1) in bovine liver, and at <200 µg kg(-1) in bovine and ovine muscle. The methods were fully validated and the milk assay was utilised in a comparison study of nitroxynil-incurred samples.