Are antibiotic screening approaches sufficiently adequate? A proficiency test

A proficiency test including the screening analysis of antibiotics in beef using cryogenicly minced materials was organized by RIKILT in 2009. The test included blank beef samples and beef samples spiked with either flumequine or a combination of lincomycin and spectinomycin around the maximum residue limits [1]. The suitability of the materials was demonstrated with a homogeneity and a stability study. This study showed that cryogenically minced spiked muscle material is suited for proficiency tests aiming at the screening and the confirmatory analysis. Of the 26 participants, 23 carried out their in-house screening approach involving microbial, biochemical or instrumental methods, or a combination of these to cover the broad range of antibiotic groups. The false negative rate was 73% for microbial methods, 50% for biochemical and 22% for instrumental methods. These results indicate that substantial effort is needed to improve screening approaches and that more regular proficiency tests are needed to reveal the shortcomings in the currently applied screening methods. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.