Measurement of ampicillin residue levels in chicken eggs during and after medicated feed administration by LC-MS/MS

A simple and sensitive LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the determination of ampicillin (ABPC) in chicken eggs. Residues were extracted by reverse-phase solid-phase extraction. Chromatographic separation was performed using a reverse-phase column with an elution gradient. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.01 and 0.1 ng g−1, respectively. For the 0.1–50 ng g−1 concentration range, mean recovery and accuracy values were 93.9–98.5% and 100.2–118.0%, respectively. ABPC residue concentrations in eggs before, during and after 7 days of medicated feeding of maximum dosage (40 mg kg−1 body weight day−1) of ABPC were determined with the LC-MS/MS method. The maximum concentration of ABPC in eggs was 3.6 ± 1.7 ng g−1 (mean ± SD) on the last day of the administration period. Residue concentrations of ABPC in eggs during and after ABPC administration were not over the Japanese maximum residue limit of 0.01 mg kg−1.