A pioneering assay to detect antibiotic residues in live animals before reaching the food chain
Until now, the control of the presence of antibiotic residues in foods of animal origin has been carried out after they are obtained or after the animals have been slaughtered. Testacos, a research project of the Interreg POCTEFA program that has been led by the Aragón Agri-Food Institute (IA2, CITA-University of Zaragoza joint research institute), proposes an alternative to this protocol by developing a pioneering tool that allows the analysis of residues of antibiotics in live animals. Its application will mean an improvement for the livestock sector, which in addition to increasing its competitiveness, would avoid the unnecessary slaughter of animals unfit for human consumption.
Another of the objectives of the project has been to conduct an extensive study that has demonstrated the commitment of the meat sector to healthy production: only 0.1% of the 5,000 samples of marketed meat analyzed in the cities of Perpignan, Toulouse, Bilbao, Logroño, and Zaragoza show a presence of antibiotics above the recommended maximum residue limit (MRL).
These conclusions have been presented at the project's closing conference, which took place this Wednesday, November 17, in the Hall of Columns of the Caja Rural de Aragón building. The event was attended by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and the Environment of the Government of Aragon, Joaquín Olona, the vice-rector for Scientific Policy of the University of Zaragoza, Rosa Bolea, the president of the Spanish Cluster of Pig Producers, Eduardo Costa, and the coordinator of Testacos and director of IA2, Rafael Pagán.
Fight antibioresistance
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers antibiotic resistance as one of the three major health threats facing humanity in the coming decades. In other words, current antibiotics may no longer be effective in treating common illnesses. Projects such as Testacos contribute to combating these antibioresistances, helping the livestock and food sector to better control and manage these substances.
The veterinary sector is the main consumer of antibiotics, so the direct connection between the primary sector and the food chain represents a risk of finding food contaminated with antibiotic residues. In addition to their possible contribution to the generation of antibioresistance, the presence of antibiotic residues in food can cause other health problems, such as intestinal disorders, toxicity, and allergies, and can hinder the fermentation processes of foods such as cheese or yogurt.
To prevent antibiotic residues from entering the food chain, food is subject to rigorous control. But one limitation of these official controls is that the analyzes are carried out on the food once it has been obtained from the animals (milk, eggs), or once it has been slaughtered (meat), so there is little chance of preventing it at the source. Although, as a general rule the waste is detected and does not end up reaching the consumer's plate, when contamination occurs, the economic value of these foods is lost, which must be confiscated and destroyed, in addition to entailing a penalty for farmers.
A pioneer analytical system
As an improvement for the sector, the Testacos project proposes a pioneering analytical system that makes easy self-monitoring of antibiotic residues available to the entire food chain, both in live animals - thus avoiding the unnecessary slaughter of animals that could contain antibiotic residues -, as in marketed meat. The tools developed during the study have been used to study the incidence of the presence of antibiotic residues in the meat of different animal species (pork, poultry, bovine, ovine, equine, etc.) marketed in five of the main cities in the area POCTEFA (Perpignan, Toulouse, Bilbao, Logroño, and Zaragoza).
After the development of an extensive study, where it was possible to create a bank of high-value reference samples, it has been concluded that blood is the most suitable matrix to determine the presence of antibiotic residues in live animals, and in this way, confirm the presence of antibiotic residues in your meat. Secondly, an analytical system has been designed that allows the presence of residues to be detected in both blood and meat. This tool includes two broad-spectrum tests, Explorer® for meat and Explorer-Blood® for blood, and two possible alternatives for the detection of quinolones: a biosensor or an immunochromatographic strip (Quinoscan®). The Explorer®, Explorer-Blood®, and Quinoscan® tests are going to be marketed by the company Zeulab S.L.
Finally, the study carried out on more than 5,000 samples of meat marketed in the POCTEFA region has resulted in a very low presence of meat contaminated with antibiotic residues above the MRLs of less than 0.1% of the samples, which demonstrates the commitment of the meat sector for the production of healthy meat.
In view of the results, Testacos proposes new control and management measures to the meat sector in the cross-border region that can increase its quality standards and, thus, its competitiveness. Thus, it is intended to contribute to the improvement of Public Health management in the region.
The closing meeting sought to raise awareness in the sector about the problem that antibioresistance currently represents for global health, for which Azucena Mora from the University of Santiago de Compostela participated. In addition, the vision of the administration on the official control of antibiotics has been exposed by Eunate Abilleira from the Public Health Regulatory Laboratory of the Basque Government, partners of the project. Next, Luis Mata, from the Aragonese biotechnology company Zeulab, described the tools developed together with Georges Instamboulie, from the University of Perpignan, another of the project's partners.
The presentation of the results of antibiotic residues in commercialized meats was carried out by María Jesús Serrano, a researcher at the University of Zaragoza. Finally, Joan San Martín, from OPP Group, presented the sector's vision on this problem. The meeting ended with a round table with all the speakers, where the project partners were able to debate with the audience.
A similar day will be held on December 2 in Perpignan, in French, for the agri-food sector in the south of France.
The project has been 65% co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg V-A Spain-France-Andorra Program (POCTEFA 2014-2020).
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