Highly sensitive chromatographic time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay for rapid onsite detection of streptomycin in milk

Antibiotic residues are major contaminants in milk because of their use in agriculture and animal husbandry. In particular, streptomycin, an aminoglycoside antibiotic, is a potential risk to consumers because of its ototoxicity, anaphylaxis, and growth inhibition. Herein, monoclonal antibodies for streptomycin were conjugated with europium microspheres to serve as detection probes for the development of a chromatographic time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay to detect streptomycin residues in milk. The method had a low detection limit of 0.58 µg/kg, a linear range of 0.8 to 6.25 μg/kg, and substantial recovery, from 85.6 to 108.3%. It showed slight cross-reactivity with another aminoglycoside analog. Strong correlations between the results of established chromatographic time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry indicated that the established fluoroimmunoassay is a reliable method for rapid onsite detection of streptomycin in milk and it has great potential in food safety monitoring.