Immunochromatographic assays based on three kinds of nanoparticles for the rapid and highly sensitive detection of tylosin and tilmicosin in eggs

Three kinds of immunochromatographic assays (ICAs) are proposed for the highly sensitive and rapid determination of tylosin (TYL) and tilmicosin (TIM) in eggs based on colloidal gold (CG), latex microsphere (LM), and time-resolved fluorescent microsphere (TRFM). Three types of ICAs could tolerate the egg matrix via simple sample pretreatment and demonstrated high sensitivity for TYL and TIM with cut-off values of 6/6/3 mu g/kg and 14/14/6 mu g/kg, respectively. Furthermore, in a single-blind parallel study 20 egg samples were analyzed by the three developed ICAs and confirmed by LC-MS/MS. The results showed good consistency, and there were no false positive and false negative results in our three ICAs. Consequently, the proposed three ICAs offered rapid, highly sensitive, reliable, and selectable testing platforms for screening veterinary medicine or other small molecule contaminants.

Automated summary

This study proposes three different immunochromatographic assay methods based on colloidal gold, latex microsphere, and time-resolved fluorescent microsphere for the highly sensitive and rapid detection of tylosin and tilmicosin in eggs. These methods can tolerate the egg matrix and demonstrate high sensitivity for the two antibiotics. Through a single-blind parallel study, the three developed ICAs show good consistency with no false positive or false negative results.