A one-step solid-phase extraction with UHPLC-MS/MS for fast and accurate determination of multi-class veterinary drugs in animal muscles

Excessive use of veterinary drugs in livestock growth poses a threat to food safety. It is, however, challenging to quantify these multi-class veterinary drugs within animal muscles, because of their varied physicochemical properties. In this work, we presented a simple, efficient and sensitive method for the simultaneous determination of multi-class veterinary drugs with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). The method involves a highly efficient extraction using a EDTA (pH 7)-ACN (30:70, v/v) solvent system, followed by a one-step solid-phase extraction cleanup approach with PRiME HLB sorbent (Reversed-phase N-vinylpyrrolidone and divinylbenzene copolymer). For all the analytes, over a wide range of polarity, satisfactory recoveries were obtained between 70% and 120%, with relative standard deviations <15%. Excellent sensitivities were achieved with the limits of quantification ranging from 0.2 μg/kg to 3.0 μg/kg. This developed method provides a new targeted strategy for the analysis of multi-class veterinary drugs in muscle matrices.