OTC Residues in Food and Fisheries Products

Oxytetracycline is a broad-spectrum antibiotic, which has been used worldwide in veterinary medicine and in aquaculture for the prevention and treatment of disease and as feed additives to promote growth. The maximum residue limits (MRLs) of OTC and relative substances as described by the US Food and Drug Administration [66] and European Union [67] are presented in Table 4. 

Antibiotics Marker residue Animal species MRL (ppm) EC US FDA Target tissues 

EC = European Comission US FDA — United State Food and Drug Administration for EC data not available. 

OTC can be well separated from TC, DC, and its impurities by means of capillary electrophoresis [25]. However, the use of CE in the analysis of OTC residues is restricted because of the low concentration sensitivity of this technique [28]. HPLC is by far the most widely used method for the analysis of OTC residues in food and fisheries products. Chromatographic analysis of tetracycline including OTC analysis in foods was reviewed by Oka et al. [65] and MacNeil [72]. HPLC methods for the analysis of OTC are summarized in Table 2. 

This cleanup procedure was also applied for routine analysis of TCs in ground water and lagoon water samples [59] and for shrimps [77]. 

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