Development of an immunochromatographic lateral-flow test strip for rapid detection of sulfonamides in eggs and chicken muscles

A rapid immunochromatographic lateral-flow test strip was developed in the competitive reaction format for the detection of sulfonamides in eggs and chicken muscle. A monoclonal antibody against the common structure of sulfonamides was conjugated to colloidal gold particles as the detection reagent and an N-sulfanilyl-4-aminobenzoic acid (SUL)-bovine serum albumin (BSA) conjugate was immobilized to a nitrocellulose membrane as the capture reagent to prepare the test strip. With this method, it required only 15 min to accomplish the semiquantitative or quantitative detection of sulfonamides. The sensitivity to sulfonamides (sulfamonomethoxine, sulfamethoxydiazine, sulfadimethoxine, and sulfadiazine) was at least 10 ng/mL, as determined with an optical density scanner. By eye measurement, the sensitivity was 20 ng/mL for sulfamonomethoxine, sulfamethoxydiazine, and sulfadimethoxine and 40 ng/mL for sulfadiazine. On the basis of a sulfamonomethoxine standard curve, recoveries were from 89.5 to 95.6% for sulfamonomethoxine, from 89.5 to 95.1% for sulfamethoxydiazine, from 85.0 to 95.6% for sulfadimethoxine, and from 44.8 to 60.9% for sulfadiazine in egg and chicken muscle samples. A parallel analysis of 27 egg samples and 28 chicken muscle samples from the animal experiment showed that the differences between test strips and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were from 0.8 to 11.2% for egg samples and from 2.2 to 34% for chicken muscle samples for the quantitative detection, and the agreement rates between test strips and HPLC were 100%, based on the maximum allowed residue level of sulfadiazine (100 ng/g) established by the European Union and China. In conclusion, the method is rapid and accurate for the detection of sulfonamides in eggs and chicken muscles.