New microbiological method for determining spectinomycin in pelleted and meal feeds using trifluoroacetic acid as...

A new microbiological method, identified as the spectinomycin trifluoroacetic (SPE-TFA) method, was compared with the current AOAC method for analyzing spectinomycin in meal and pelleted feeds fortified with LS-20 premix. Feeds containing 3 concentrations of drugs and a zero level were tested in a correlation study. The data showed no significant differences in the percent of theory assayed between meal and pelleted samples using the SPE-TFA method, but the percent of theory found using the AOAC method was significantly lower for the pelleted samples than for the meal samples. The within-sample variation of the AOAC assay was also not the same for all samples; the SPE-TFA assay variation was relatively constant for all samples. The SPE-TFA method produced an overall average recovery of 98% with a range of 89-109% compared with an 85% recovery ranging from 64 to 102% for the AOAC method. In addition to producing better recoveries, the SPE-TFA method features a more sensitive response line, and final test solutions have viscosities and clarity more comparable to the standard solutions than those produced by the current AOAC method.