ARS | Publication request: A Comparison of the FAST, Premi® and KIS(TradeMark) Tests for Screening Antibiotic Residues in Beef Kidney Juice and Serum

Submitted to: Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: January 23, 2008
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Citation: Schneider, M.J., Lehotay, S.J. 2008. A Comparison of the FAST, Premi® and KIS(TradeMark) Tests for Screening Antibiotic Residues in Beef Kidney Juice and Serum. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. 390(7):1775-1779.

Interpretive Summary: Use of antibiotics in livestock and the potential for antibiotic residues necessitates monitoring of the food supply to ensure any residues present are below the acceptable level established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Rapid screening tests have been developed which increase the efficiency of such monitoring by inexpensively identifying the few samples which may contain violative residue levels, allowing the majority of samples to proceed without subsequent expensive and time-consuming testing. In this work we have compared three different rapid screening tests: the fast antibiotic screening test (FAST), used currently by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, and the recently developed Premi® and KISTM tests. Eight antibiotics were evaluated for their response to each of these tests, in both beef kidney juice and beef serum as matrices. The detectability data provided for the antibiotics will allow FSIS, ranchers, dairy farmers, and other interested parties to choose an appropriate assay for screening antibiotics of concern.

Technical Abstract: Three microbial inhibition-based screening methods, the fast antibiotic screening test (FAST), Premi® Test and kidney inhibition swab (KISTM) test were evaluated using penicillin G, sulfadimethoxine, oxytetracyline, tylosin, danofloxacin, streptomycin, neomycin, and spectinomycin at a range of fortified concentrations in beef kidney juice and beef serum. Each antibiotic was individually tested simultaneously using the different assays in replicate experiments. Detection threshold concentrations for each analyte in each screening assay were determined for the different matrices. Each assay gave a different detectability profile for the different antibiotics, with the largest differences related to neomycin, which was more sensitively detected by the FAST, and penicillin G, which was detected at lower levels by the Premi® and KISTM tests. In addition to practical considerations, the analyst can use the information presented in this study to evaluate each kit for applicability to their monitoring needs.