Latex bead and colloidal gold applied in a multiplex immunochromatographic assay for high-throughput detection of three classes of antibiotic residues in milk

Abstract Two rapid and sensitive high-throughput immunochromatographic assays were successfully developed for simultaneous determination of 12 sulfonamide, 18 quinolone and six tetracycline residues in milk. Under optimized conditions, residues from these three classes of antibiotics can be qualitatively and quantitatively determined on a single strip within 10 min. The detection limits were much lower than the maximum residue limits established by the European Union. Comparative evaluations of sensitivity, antibody consumption, coefficient of variation and user experience between these two immunochromatographic assays showed that latex beads have advantages over colloidal gold when employed as a label in the assay. Therefore, the latex bead-based high-throughput immunochromatographic assay has the best potential for on-site testing of a large number of samples as part of food safety applications.