ANTIMICROBIAL RESIDUES IN BROILER POULTRY AND FISH AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN PUBLIC HEALTH IN CHITTAGONG

Abstract

Food safety with regard to human health is a great concern all over the world. The existence of antimicrobial residues at variable concentrations in edible tissues of poultry and fish has been reported to be due to indiscriminate and overuses, not maintaining withdrawal periods etc and consequences of antimicrobial residues on human body are enormous as reported such as multi-drug resistant, hypersensitivity reactions, suppression of immunity or even cancer. However, a systematic study of antimicrobial residues in broiler chickens and fishes has not been attempted earlier in Bangladesh. Therefore, the present repeated cross-sectional study in 2014 was carried out to assess the status of antimicrobial residues in broiler chickens and fishes in Chittagong and evaluate the potential public health risk. 82 broiler chickens and 232 fish flesh (September 41 and 116; November 41 and 116) were purchased and sampled. Outlets (poultry and fish) belonging to five different markets were randomly selected before purchasing and sampling broiler chickens and fishes. A total of 478 samples (246 poultry organs and 232 fleshes of fishes) were evaluated by the Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) and 18 TLC positive samples were further evaluated by Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC) methods for quantifying concentration of selective antimicrobial residues. Descriptive, summary statistics and Fisher’s exact test was performed on the data generated from the study. The overall prevalence regardless of antimicrobial types was 84% in broiler chickens (43.9% in September and 37% in November). The prevalence of antimicrobial residues in poultry organs was 39.4% and liver had significantly higher prevalence of residues (54.5%) than that of thigh (24.2%) or breast muscle (21.2%). The prevalence of antimicrobial residues in broiler chicken in September and in November was 26.8% and 22.0% respectively, for ciprofloxacin (p>0.05). The overall prevalence of antimicrobial residues in fishes was 13.8% (8.6% in September and 5.2% in November). Residues of oxytetracycline and amoxicillin were detected (10.3% and 6.9% respectively). Irrespective of months Rui had the highest prevalence of residues (10.3-13.8% oxytetracycline; 3.4-10.3% amoxicillin). Regardless of antimicrobial types poultry vendor categories (wholesaler: 50%, retailer: 83.3%, and both: 92.9%) varied significantly (p=0.002). Average concentration of amoxicillin residues ranged from 75.8-111.8 µg/kg in poultry organs and 95.4-95.9 µg/kg in fish (Rui and Koi), whereas average concentration of ciprofloxacin residues ranged from 133-269.2 µg/kg in poultry organs in this study. These values crossed the maximum reference values (amoxicillin 50 µg/kg and ciprofloxacin 100 µg/kg), indicating potential public health risk, however, washing and cooking treatment may reduce the public health risk. Indiscriminate use of antimicrobials with their withdrawal period in poultry and fish should strictly be maintained before human consumption