329 Pakistan Veterinary Journal ISSN: 0253-8318 (PRINT), 2074-7764 (ONLINE) DOI: 10.29261/pakvetj/2018.052 Estimation of Florfenicol Residues in Layer Meat and Egg Samples using High Performance Liquid Chromatography Amna Fahim 1 , Bilal Aslam 1 *, Mashkoor Mohsin 2 , Ahmad Raza 1 , Muhammad Naeem Faisal 1 and Asif Hussain 1 1 Institute of Pharmacy, Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38040, Pakistan 2 Institute of Microbiology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38040, Pakistan *Corresponding author: cba933@gmail.com ARTICLE HISTORY (17-234) ABSTRACT Received: Revised: Accepted: Published online: July 06, 2017 April 01, 2018 April 20, 2018 June 26, 2018 Antibiotics are widely used in the poultry industry to enhance the health and productivity of flocks which may have adverse effects on consumer’s health. It is necessary to screen food products from animal origin for antimicrobial residues to safeguard the consumer’s health. The present study was aimed to detect florfenicol (FF) residues in meat and egg samples of layer birds. For this purpose 150 meat and eggs samples were collected in equal ratio. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to determine residual concentration of FF in meat and egg samples at wavelength of 223 nm. Ethyl acetate and phosphate buffer saline solution were used for extraction of FF from the samples. The mobile phase contained acetonitrile and water (27:73 v/v). Mean residual concentrations of FF as 61.56±13.19 and 281.08±57.46 μg/kg in meat and egg samples was detected. This study also showed that 80% (60) meat and 72% (54) egg samples were FF residue positive, out of these 86.7% (52) meat and 55.6% (30) egg samples were found to have residual concentrations above maximum residual limits. This contaminated meat may cause public health issues. There is a need to develop legislation about residual concentration of drugs in animal food products in Pakistan as well as to inform formers about the detrimental effects of drug residues on human health. ©2018 PVJ. All rights reserved Key words: Eggs Florfenicol Layer Meat Residues To Cite This Article: Fahim A, Aslam B, Mohsin M, Raza A, Faisal MN and Hussain A, 2018. Estimation of florfenicol residues in layer meat and egg samples using high performance liquid chromatography. Pak Vet J, 38(3): 329-332. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2018.052 INTRODUCTION The poultry business is one of the main ventures of Pakistan. Form last few years, poultry meat production has increased at a rate of 20-25% per annum. In Pakistan, poultry industry is providing meat which contributes 19% of the total meat production. Lack of a disease control program is one of the desolate problems that is being faced by this industry (Shah and Korejo, 2012). The food produced by animals carries antibiotic residues. Parent therapeutic compound, metabolites and conjugates can accumulate in tissues of animals known as residues (Adewuyi et al., 2011; Sajid et al., 2016). The continuous usage of antibiotics in poultry farms causes major health problems in consumers. Allergies, resistance of microbes to drugs, carcinogenic effect and the potential adverse effect on human intestinal microflora can occur by consuming the low doses of antibiotics for long periods (Nasri et al., 2012; Boamah et al., 2016). Chloramphenicol (CAP), florfenicol (FF) and thiamphenicol (TAP) are broad-spectrum antibiotics from class Amphenicol (AP). APs are extensively used in veterinary practices for the cure of bacterial infections. FF is safer as compared to CAP. Now-a-days, food producing animals are treated with FF for improving the antibacterial activity, which is an alternative to CAP (Tao et al., 2013). In the poultry industry, FF is preferred over some antibiotics because of its good pharmacological and pharmacokinetics characteristics (Shaheen and El-Far, 2013). It shows its activity at smaller concentrations as compared to CAP and TAP. The occurrence of FF residues in tissues may increase the resistance to bacteria. It can produce deleterious effects on human health (Wu et al., 2008). The administration of this drug should not be allowed in eggs producing animals (Fodey et al., 2013). Due to the continuous administration of AP to animals available for human consumption, residues of AP in edible tissues can produce harmful effects on human health (Evaggelopoulou and Samanidou, 2013). It is needed to protect the health of consumer against possible deleterious effects of residues of veterinary medicines (Mamani et al., 2009). A maximum residue limit (MRL) RESEARCH ARTICLE