RISK ASSESSMENT OF OXYTETRACYCLINE AND PENICILLIN RESIDUES IN RAW MILK

Antibiotic residues in milk are of great public health concern since milk is widely consumed by infants, youngest and adults throughout the globe. The present work aimed to determine the presence and concentration of the residues of oxytetracycline and penicillin in raw milk samples. A total of 120 random raw milk samples were collected from different dairy shops, through summer and winter, dairy farms and farmers' houses (30 samples for each) in Assiut City, Egypt. A double-beam UV/visible spectrophotometer was used to detect and determine the residues. The incidences of oxytetracycline residues in summer dairy shops s, winter dairy shops s, and farm and farmers' houses milk were 21, 25, 29 and 28 %, respectively. The incidences of penicillin residues in the same samples were 28, 26, 25 and 27 %, respectively. The minimum and maximum for oxytetracycline were 3 and 38.65 µg/L, respectively with an average of 8.99 µg/L, while for penicillin were 5.9 and 250 µg/L, respectively, with an average of 76.5 µg/L. All detected oxytetracycline residues were below the 100 µg/L MRL standards, while all the penicillin residues were above the 4 µg/L MRL standards set by Codex. Of the total samples, 6 samples were free from residues, 18 samples had one antibiotic residue, and 96 samples had two antibiotic residues. A comparison was made between the permissible daily consumption and the calculated daily intake for each antibiotic residue. A Hazard Quotient was carried out for risk evaluation of the residues of penicillin and oxytetracycline in adults and children.