Total Antibiotics — A New Possible Alternative for the Screening of Coccidiostat Residues in Poultry Meat

The Total Antibiotics test is a microbial inhibition test which has been recently introduced for the detection of antibiotics in meat. The aim of this study was to determine whether it would be suitable for the detection of coccidiostats in poultry meat. A comparison with the Premi®Test was assessed also for the suitability of the detection of coccidiostats in poultry meat. A selection of poultry meat samples of different organ parts were assessed with 14 samples from Slovakian farms that had previously been tested for coccidiostats by the Veterinary and Food Institute in Košice. In addition, another 8 samples from varied Slovakian supermarkets such as Lidl, Billa and Tesco with samples of chicken or duck meat, were tested. Each prepared sample was added to the Total Antibiotics kit tubes and incubated. The samples from all sources showed a mixture of positive and negative results for the detection of coccidiostats.

For the Premi®Test, the samples used the same extraction procedure as the Total Antibiotics, placed in Premi®Test kit tubes and incubated. The Premi®Test demonstrated a mixture of positive and negative results, as similar to the Total Antibiotics for coccidiostats in the poultry farm samples. However, the Premi Test revealed many more negative results for the supermarket sources compared to the Total Antibiotics. Therefore, based on the total number of positive results, we concluded that Total Antibiotics is more sensitive for the detection of coccidiostats in poultry meat, but depending on the source of the samples, both Total Antibiotics and Premi®Test had either similar or opposite results for the detection of coccidiostats.