Flow cytometric immunoassay for sulfonamides in raw milk

Sulfonamide antibiotics are applied in veterinary medicine for the treatment of microbial infections. For the detection of residues of sulfonamides in milk, a multi-sulfonamide flow cytometric immunoassay (FCI) was developed using the Luminex MultiAnalyte Profiling (xMAP) technology. In this automated FCI, a previously developed biotinylated multi-sulfonamide mutant antibody (M.3.4) was applied in combination with fluorescent beads, directly coated with a sulfathiazole derivative, and streptavidin–phycoerythrin (SAPE) for the detection. With this FCI, at least 11 different sulfonamides could be detected (more than 50% inhibition at the 100 ng mL−1 level) and, after an incubation of 1 h, measurements were rapid (10 s per sample). For the application with raw milk, a 96-well microplate-based filtration step was included into the protocol to remove disturbing milk fat particles. Because of differences in sensitivity towards different sulfonamides, the FCI was considered and validated as a qualitative screening assay. For sulfadoxine, the most applied sulfonamide in Dutch dairy cattle, the detection capability (CCβ) was