Antibiotic Residues and Dyes in the Prawn Culture Sector of Khulna Region

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted to find out the status and trends of the presence of chloramphenicol, nitrofuran metabolites and dyes in freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii in the Khulna region of Bangladesh. All data on chloramphenicol, nitrofuran metabolites and dyes presence in prawn muscles during 2013 to 2017 were collected from Fish Inspection and Quality Control (FIQC) Khulna wing of the Department of Fisheries. Presence of antibiotic residues in the prawn muscles was detected using ELISA screening and LC-MS-MS by the FIQC wing of the Department of Fisheries. The study exposed less deliberate use of banned antibiotics and dyes though these chemicals were detected in many M. rosenbergii in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 in both fresh muscles and pre-export consignments. The percentage of contamination with these banned antibiotics in M. rosenbergii samples detected by LC-MS-MS Confirmation test were 0.62%, 0.22%, 0.30%, 0.35% and 0.04% in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively while 0.01%, 0.06%, 0.16%, 0.03% and 0.11% samples were detected with dyes which were beyond Minimum Required Performance Limit (MRPL) or Maximum Residual Limit (MRL). The result of the present study also revealed that among four nitrofuran metabolites (AOZ, AMOZ, AHD, SEM), nitrofurazone was found more frequently but in smaller quantities in 2014 and 2017; while an increasing trend was observed on the presence of dyes in prawn of Bangladesh during 2013 to 2017 except 2016. Moreover, only 3 samples were contaminated with chloramphenicol beyond MRPL with a mean value of 0.22±0.01 and 0.39±0.00 ppb in 2013 and 2014. Finally, there has been a decreasing trend observed on the presence of nitrofuran and chloramphenicol in prawn of Bangladesh. On the contrary an increasing trend was noticed in case of dyes in prawn of Bangladesh. No farmers deliberately used nitrofuran, chloramphenicol and dyes in their prawn farms. Though these banned items were detected in some of the farmed prawns. More monitoring system should be conducted to the control illegal use of these veterinary drugs. To protect this all commercial feed should be strictly screened and any chance of deliberate, accidental or incidental leakage should be checked.