Simultaneous determination of florfenicol and florfenicol amine in fish, shrimp, and swine muscle by gas chromatography with a microcell electron capture detector.

A rapid and sensitive gas chromatography method was developed for the simultaneous determination of florfenicol (FF) and its metabolite florfenicol amine (FFA) in fish, shrimp, and swine muscle. The extracted samples were defatted with hexane and cleaned up by solid-phase extraction using Oasis MCX cartridges. The eluate was evaporated to dryness, and residues were derivatized and determined by gas chromatography with a microcell electron capture detector. Overall average recoveries ranged from 81.7 to 109.7% for fish, 94.1 to 103.4% for shrimp, and 71.5 to 91.4% for swine muscle. The detection limit was 0.5 ng/g for FF and 1 ng/g for FFA, respectively. The method was validated for the determination of incurred swine muscle samples in an actual residue study.