Development of an ELISA for salinomycin and depletion kinetics of salinomycin residues in poultry.

Salinomycin is widely used as a feed additive to control coccidiosis in the broiler industry world-wide. EC legislation on veterinary drug residues will soon be extended to cover poultry. This will require the development of rapid assays to screen for the presence of residual concentrations of this and other drugs in poultry meat. This study describes the development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for salinomycin that has a limit of detection of approximately 0.2 ng/g. The antibody cross-reacts with narasin, but is not subject to interference from lasalocid, maduramicin or monensin. Residual concentrations of salinomycin were measured in the tissues of broilers following feeding of medicated feed containing 60 mg/kg salinomycin. Salinomycin residues were present only at very low concentrations in liver and muscle, and fell below the limit of decision of the assay within 2 days of withdrawal of the medicated feed.