Determination of Nicarbazin in Animal Feed by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Interlaboratory Evaluation

A liquid chromatographic method was developed for the determination of nicarbazin in feed. The samples were extracted with 90 percent acetonitrile, purified on alumina, and analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. The developed method was validated in-house and further verified by interlaboratory studies. The limits of detection and quantification of the method were 0.05 and 0.10 milligram per kilogram, respectively. The recoveries of nicarbazin in feed ranged between 98.3 and 111 percent, with acceptable intralaboratory reproducibility. In the interlaboratory comparison, one contaminated and three uncontaminated poultry feed samples were analyzed by thirteen laboratories using the method developed in this study. Statistical analysis confirmed the accuracy and precision of the method with verification in the interlaboratory comparison.