Enzyme- Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) for Determination of Homidium Residues in Meat

Abstract

Homidium bromide has been commonly used since 1950s to treat trypanosomosis in cattle. Due to its widespread use, there is a risk of residues in foods of animal origin. Due to the fact that homidium is a suspected carcinogenic and teratogenic agent, it has no allowed minimum residue level (MRL) and hence, no amount of the drug is allowed in food. It is therefore necessary to have a suitable analytical technique that is sensitive, simple, cost effective and rapid for detection of homidium residues. A direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed to determine homidium presence in skeletal muscle tissue extract. The limit of detection and quantification were 1ng/ml and 2.6ng/ml respectively. The coefficients of intra-assay and inter-assay variation were less than 10%. Recoveries above 70% were obtained using simple and rapid extraction method utilizing cheap buffers. Assay accuracies for tissue extract spiked at 1ng/ml and 2.5ng/ml were above 90%. The homidium ELISA has a high throughput and therefore suitable for screening large amounts of samples for homidium residues. This would be a major step in safeguarding consumers against the harmful effects of homidium