Antibiotic residues in cattle and sheep meat and human exposure assessment in southern Xinjiang, China

In recent years, antibiotics have become widely used in animal breeding. The application of antibiotics in livestock may lead to the presence of antibiotic residues in animal-derived foods, especially meat, that may pose a threat to human health. In this study, 26 common antibiotics (eight sulfonamides, nine fluoroquinolones, four tetracyclines, and five macrolides) were screened in 88 meat samples (cattle muscles and sheep muscles, kidneys, and livers) obtained from southern Xinjiang. The antibiotics were screened via the clean-up step based on solid-phase extraction and determined through ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Moreover, their risk to human health was analyzed. Overall, 16 antibiotics were detected with a total detection rate of 95.46%. The percentage of noncompliant samples was 28.41% with an exceedance maximum residue limit of 1.14%. The illegal use rate of the antibiotic norfloxacin was 27.27%. The estimated daily exposure doses of all compounds in adults were <102.218 ng/kg bw/day even after applying the worst-case scenario approach. This result demonstrated that the antibiotic residues in the tested samples imposed negligible harm to people's health and had an acceptable level of food safety risk. However, the high detection frequencies found in this work indicated that the risk of antibiotic residues could not be ignored given the cumulative risk of antibiotics, particularly the emergence of bacterial resistance, to the human body. The need for effective strategies and publicity for the judicious use of antibiotics to safeguard residents' health is immediate.

Automated summary

This study found that antibiotic residues in animal-derived foods, especially meat, had a negligible impact on human health and were within an acceptable level of food safety risk. However, the emerging issues of antibiotic residues and bacterial resistance should not be ignored, calling for effective strategies and awareness campaigns to ensure the judicious use of antibiotics and safeguard public health.