Validation of a method for the determination of chloramphenicol in poultry and swine liver by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry

A sensitive and reliable method has been developed and validated for the determination of chloramphenicol in poultry and swine liver using SPE and ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)/MS/MS. The liver samples were extracted with ethyl acetate, defatted with n-hexane, and further cleaned up using SPE cartridges with polymeric sorbent. An Acquity BEH C18 column was used for gradient UPLC separation, with water and acetonitrile as the mobile phase. The multiple reaction monitoring mode was used for two precursor-product ion transitions for chloramphenicol and one for the internal standard. The method was validated at 0.1, 0.3, and 1.0 microg/kg. Mean recoveries from fortified samples ranged from 95.5 to 106.7% with an RSD of 12.2%. The method LOD was < 0.02 microg/kg.