ARS Develops Quick Antibiotic Discovery Method For Meat Animals

August 20, 1999

USDA's Agricultural Research Service has developed and patented a new antibody to quickly pinpoint a major antibiotic given dairy cows and meat animals. Researchers also can use the antibody to detect Ceftiofur, an antibiotic used to treat mastitis in dairy cows and respiratory diseases in cattle, hogs and poultry.

The Food and Drug Administration routinely screens milk, and USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service routinely checks meat products to make sure antibiotic residue tolerances are not exceeded. The agencies now use time consuming laboratory analytical methods to measure residues.

Using the ARS-patented antibody, called CEFT-116, the test can detect Ceftiofur in the low-parts-per-million (ppm) range in hundreds of milk samples per day. Unlike chemical analyses, an antibody test requires very little clean-up time.

Researchers believe the CEFT-116 can be used alone or incorporated into a test kit along with other antibodies. The advantage of developing an immunoassay kit is that it can be used in the field by the dairy and meat industries as a way to pre-screen products for safety.

The antibody has been licensed to a company for incorporation into an immunoassay for measuring this antibiotic in milk.

Larry H. Stanker of the ARS Food and Feed Safety Research Unit, College Station, TX, is the scientific contact on the project. His phone is (409) 260-9484; his Internet address is