Hazards and Detection Techniques of Veterinary Drug Residues in Animal-Origin Food

Abstract

Veterinary drugs originally used to diagnose, prevent, control and treat animal diseases. However, now some of them can also be mixed into livestock feed as growth promoters. Although most countries have specified animal-derived veterinary drug residue standards, such as the maximum residue limit, withdrawal period and prohibition of some veterinary drugs as growth promoters, there are still some animal-derived products with illegal amount of drug residues. Consequently, long-term intake of products with excessive residues will result in irreversible impacts on human health, livestock industries and natural environment. To minimize these risks, the techniques of drug residues detection plays an important role in guarding food safety of animal products. Moreover, Veterinary drug residue detection technology, according to the author's opinion, can be divided into instrumental method, immunoassay method, biomolecular technology and bio-sensor technology. The purpose of this article is to collect and summarize the existing journal literature current about status, hazards and detection techniques of animal-origin veterinary drug residues so that ordinary readers can briefly understand the research status of the residue detection techniques, farmers can understand the importance of regulating and suitable handling of veterinary drugs, and relevant researchers may know about the emphasized difficulties that need to be overcome in drug residue detection techniques.