Simultaneous determination of 16 sulfonamides in animal feeds by UHPLC-MS-MS

A fast and sensitive method was developed for the simutaneous quantitative determination of 16 sulfonamides in animal feeds using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS-MS). With the developed method, a feed sample can be analyzed in less than 2 h. A solid phase extraction method using acetonitrile and basic alumina column was developed to extract and purify sulfonamides from animal feeds. The analysis time can be greatly reduced with this method compared with previous reports. A linear range of 0.2 approximately 40 ng/mL (R(2) > 0.996) were obtianed for most of the compounds. The limits of quantification for all sulfonamides were in the range of 0.5 approximately 20 μg/kg. The high precision and accuracy of this method were represented by average recoveries ranging from 80% to 120% and coefficients of variation of less than 10% for spiked animal feed samples. The method is suitable for fast determination of sulfonamides in concentrates, premixes, and complete feeds.