International validation study for the determination of chloramphenicol in bovine muscle.

A gas chromatographic (GC) procedure for the quantitation and GC/negative ion chemical ionization mass spectrometric (NICIMS) confirmation of chloramphenicol in calf muscle tissue was the subject of a validation study. Five analysts representing 5 laboratories in 4 countries participated in the quantitative method and analyzed 7 randomly numbered blind triplicates at 4 fortified and 3 incurred tissue concentrations on 3 separate days. The chloramphenicol concentrations ranged from 0 to 2.5 ppb. All data were reported to 3 significant figures. The coefficients of variation were 9.5-28.7% for repeatability and 14.6-38% over the study range for reproducibility. NICIMS data representing 3 laboratories in 3 countries successfully confirmed chloramphenicol in samples at 0.6 ppb or greater with no false positives in blank tissues.