DETECTION OF DIMETRIDAZOLE AND OTHER NITROIMIDAZOLE RESIDUES IN TURKEY USING AN IMMUNOASSAY

A series of monoclonal antibodies were generated that can bind dimetridazole, a nitroimidazole drug used in veterinary medicine. A competition enzyme-linked immunosorption assay (cELISA) is described and is used to characterize the binding of these antibodies to a number of nitroimidazole drugs. The 50% inhibition of control occurred for the most sensitive of these antibodies at 12 ng/mL for dimetridazole, 75 ng/mL for hydroxydimetridazole, 25 ng/mL for ipronidazole, 2000 ng/mL for hydroxyipronidazole, and 20 000 ng/mL for metronidazole. An extraction method for these nitroimidazoles that is compatible with the immunoassay is described. Using this method, as little as 1 ng of dimetridazole could be detected in turkey muscle.