ELISA for sulfonamides and its application for screening in water contamination

Two enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were tested for their suitability for detecting sulfonamides in wastewater from various stages in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), the river into which the wastewater is discharged, and two swine-rearing facilities. The sulfamethoxazole ELISA cross-reacts with several compounds, achieving detection limits of <0.04 microg/L for sulfamethoxazole (SMX), sulfamethoxypyridine, sulfachloropyridine, and sulfamethoxine, whereas the sulfamethazine (SMZ) ELISA is more compound specific, with a detection limit of <0.03 microg/L. Samples from various stages of wastewater purifications gave 0.6-3.1 microg/L by SMX-ELISA, whereas river samples were approximately 10-fold lower, ranging from below detection to 0.09 microg/L. Swine wastewater samples analyzed by the SMX-ELISA were either at or near detectable limits from one facility, whereas the other facility had concentrations of approximately 0.5 microg/L, although LC-MS/MS did not confirm the presence of SMX. Sulfamethazine ELISA detected no SMZ in either WWTP or river samples. In contrast, wastewater samples from swine facilities analyzed by SMZ-ELISA were found to contain approximately 30 microg/L [piglet (50-100 lb) wastewater] and approximately 7 microg/L (market-weight hog wastewater). Sulfamethazine ELISA analyses of wastewater from another swine facility found concentrations to be near or below detection limits. A solid phase extraction method was used to isolate and concentrate sulfonamides from water samples prior to LC-MS/MS multiresidue confirmatory analysis. The recoveries at 1 microg/L fortification ranged from 42 +/- 4% for SMZ to 88 +/- 4% for SMX ( n = 6). The ELISA results in the WWTPs were confirmed by LC-MS/MS, as sulfonamide multiresidue confirmatory analysis identified SMX, sulfapyridine, and sulfasalazine to be present in the wastewater. Sulfamethazine presence at one swine-rearing facility was also confirmed by LC-MS/MS, demonstrating the usefulness of the ELISA technique as a rapid and high-throughput screening method.