Abstract:

For animal disease control, vaccines containing mineral oil as a vaccine adjuvant composition are often used to immunize animals, but this may cause residues in animal meat, which will cause health problems to the human body once ingested. The objectives of this study were to determine the residues of mineral oil components in the chicken s body and to investigate the metabolic changes of mineral oil components in a simulated vaccination model. Chickens of 15 days old were injected with white oil No. 7 (a commercially available mineral oil adjuvant) and the residues of mineral oil components in leg muscle, heart, liver and skin were determined using GC-MS method on the 3rd, 7th, 14th, 28th and 56th day after injection. It was found that on both 3rd and 7th day after injection 11 alkanes detected in white oil No. 7 were also detected in the muscle receiving injection, and each of these compounds had similar mean relative percentage in the two analytes; on the 14th day, both the number and quantity of residual alkanes in the injection site had a decrease trend, and on the 56th day reached minimum. While for both heart and liver, the number of detected alkanes was found maximum on the 3rd day, and became smaller on the 7th day, but compared with skin, much more number and quantity of residual alkanes were both determined in heart on the 56th day. These results show that mineral oil reach other tissues and organs via circulation, and using mineral oil as an adjuvant in food production of animal origin might bring some safety risks.

Key words: chicken meat, GC-MS, mineral oil, residue, food safety