Abstract: A method for the simultaneous determination of six macrolide antibiotics (oleandomycin, erythromycin, kitasamycin, josamycin, roxithromycin and tylosin) and two lincosamide antibiotics (lincomycin and clindamycin) in animal feeds by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospary ionization tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) was developed. The macrolide and lincosamide antibiotics were extracted from the feeds with methanol followed by enrichment and clean-up with an Oasis HLB cartridge. The UPLC separation was performed on a Waters Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column by a gradient elution using 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. The identification of eight drugs was carried out by positive electrospray ionization in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode, and the quantification analysis was performed by external standard method. The calibration curves showed good linearity in the range of 1~100 μg/L. The average recoveries of the eight drugs from the feeds spiked at 1, 10 and 100 μg/kg levels were between 68.6% and 95.2%, and the relative standard deviations (RSD) were between 4.9% and 11.8%. The limits of quantification (LOQ) of the drugs in the feeds were 1 μg/kg. The method is simple, rapid, sensitive and suitable for the simultaneous determination of macrolide and lincosamide antibiotics in animal feeds.

Key words: feeds, lincosamide antibiotics, macrolide antibiotics, ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS)