Qualtitative determination of antibiotic residues in milk with different screening methods and bio test

Veterinary drug residues in milk represent a health risk for the consumer. To comply with national drug residue regulations and to minimize economic losses, milk testing for antibiotics at the truck site, before pumping the contents into the silo, is applied in dairy industry. Because of the time requirements for microbiological inhibition tests, several companies offer more rapid commercial tests. The aim of this study was to compare different screening methods and Bio test in examination of raw milk at truck site in dairy. The results showed that assays sensitive only to b-lactams (Delvo-X-press, Penzim S, Beta Star and CHARM-bL test) have good agreement. Bio test and Delvo SP test have less agreement with other tests. The results also show that introduction of rapid tests for the detection of more antibiotic groups is necessary, e.g. Twinsensor (Unisensor S.A., Belgium) which enables to detect b-lactam and tetracycline antibiotics as well.