Determination of florfenicol residues in swine tissues using high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet photometric detector

A study of the tissue depletion of florfenicol (FFC) administered orally to pigs at a dose of 0.05 kg/ton feed for 7 days was performed. Sixteen healthy cross swine were administered with FFC. Four treated animals were arbitrarily selected to be sacrificed 1, 3 and 5 days after the end of treatment. FFC residue concentrations in muscle, liver, kidney, and fat were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet photometric detector at 230 nm. The correlation coefficient (R 2 ) of the calibration curve for florfenicol amine (FFCa) was > 0.997 and the limits of detection and quantification were 0.012 and 0.040 μg/mL, respectively. Recovery rates in swine edible tissues ranged from 79.1 to 93.5%. In the FFC-treated group, FFC residues at 3 days post-treatment were below the maximum residue limits (MRLs) in muscle, kidney and fat, and those at 5 days post-administration were below the MRLs in all edible tissues. These results suggest that the withdrawal period of FFC after the drug treatment might be 5 days, which is a sufficient amount of time for reduction of the FFC residues below the MRLs in all edible tissues.