Abstract:

The specific antibodies against terbutaline prepared in our previous studies were used to develop an indirect competitive ELISA for the determination of terbutaline residue in pork. The sensitivity, accuracy, precision and specificity of the method were measured, followed by a comparison with HPLC method. The developed ELISA exhibited good linearity over the concentration range from 1 to 100 ng/mL, a sensitivity of 0.47 ng/mL, a limit of detection of 1 ng/mL and a spike recovery range from 80% to 99%. Cross-reactivities between the antibodies against terbutaline prepared and clenbutarol or salbutamol were 94.9% and 93.9%, respectively, and those between the antibodies against terbutaline prepared and ractopamine or adrenaline were both less than 0.01%. The developed HPLC method exhibited a linear range from 10 to 200μg/mL, a limit of detection of 1μg/mL and a spike recovery range from 79.2% to 94.8%. The developed ELISA exhibited higher sensitivity and specificity than the developed HPLC, whereas the stability of the former was inferior to that of the latter. Their accuracies were similar.

Key words: terbutaline, residue, ELISA, HPLC