Development of a rapid screening test for veterinary sedatives and the beta-blocker carazolol in porcine kidney by ELISA

Sedatives and tranquillisers are frequently used to reduce stress during the transportation of food producing animals. The most widely used classes of sedatives include the butyrophenone azaperone, the phenothiazines acepromazine, propionylpromazine, chlorpromazine and the beta-blocker, carazolol. For regulatory control purposes, tolerances for azaperone and carazolol have been set by the European Union as 100 and 25 mug kg(-1), respectively. Furthermore, the use of the phenothiazines is prohibited and therefore has a zero tolerance. A method for the detection of residues of five tranquillisers and one beta-blocker using a single ELISA plate has been developed. Kidney samples (2.5 g) were extracted with dichloromethane and applied to a competitive enzyme immunoassay using three polyclonal antibodies raised in rabbits against azaperol, propionylpromazine and carazolol conjugates. In sample matrix, the azaperol antibody cross-reacted 28.0% with azaperone and the propionylpromazine antibody cross-reacted 24.9% with acepromazine and 11.7% with chlorpromazine. In the ELISA, the detection capabilities of the six sedatives, azaperol, azaperone, carazolol, acepromazine, chlorpromazine, and propionylpromazine are 5, 15, 5, 5, 20 and 5 mug kg(-1), respectively. The proposed method is a sensitive and rapid multi-residue technique that offers a cost effective alternative to current published procedures, without any concession on the ability to detect sedative misuse.

Development of an ELISA screening test for nitroimidazoles in egg and chicken muscle

An antibody was generated that can bind metronidazole (MNZ), a nitroimidazole drug used in veterinary medicine to treat poultry for coccidiosis and histomoniasis. A direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) is described. It was used to characterise binding of this antibody to a number of nitroimidazole drugs. It displayed cross-reactivity with dimetridazole (DMZ), ronidazole (RNZ), hydroxydimetridazole (DMZOH), and ipronidazole (IPZ).

Screening tablets for DOB using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

2,5,-Dimethoxy-4-bromoamphetamine (DOB) is of particular interest among the various

Forensic analysis of architectural finishes using Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectroscopy, Part I: The resin bases

The ability of Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) microscopy to discriminate between resins used for the manufacture of architectural finishes was examined in a study of 39 samples taken from a commercial resin library. Both Raman and FT-IR were able to discriminate between different types of resin and both split the samples into several groups (six for FT-IR, six for Raman), each of which gave similar, but not identical, spectra. In addition, three resins gave unique Raman spectra (four in FTIR). However, approximately half the library comprised samples that were sufficiently similar that they fell into a single large group, whether classified using FT-IR or Raman, although the remaining samples fell into much smaller groups. Further sub-division of the FT-IR groups was not possible because the experimental uncertainty was of similar magnitude to the within-group variation. In contrast, Raman spectroscopy was able to further discriminate between resins that fell within the same groups because the differences in the relative band intensities of the resins, although small, were larger than the experimental uncertainty.

Rapid forensic analysis and identification of "lilac" architectural finishes using Raman spectroscopy

The potential of Raman spectroscopy to discriminate between architectural finishes (household paint) has been investigated using a test set of 51