No abstract

Serum analysis has received much attention in regulatory analysis of food-producing animals, especially for anabolic steroids. The possibility of confirming the parent drugs with minimum metabolization enables the detection of intact steroid esters, whose identification represents unequivocal proof of drug administration. This work involved the development and validation of a quantitative LC-MS/MS method to determine 30 steroids and steroid esters in bovine serum. Sensitivity was improved using microwave-assisted chemical derivatization with methoxyamine hydrochloride. The validation was successfully conducted in accordance with the Decision 657/2002/EC guidelines. An in vivo experiment was performed on 12 crossbred steers in which two commercial formulations containing boldenone undecylenate and testosterone propionate were administrated via intramuscular injections. The samples were collected over a period of 120 days, in which both intact esters were identified within 11 days postadministration. 17β-Boldenone was observed after 92 days for 2 steers and 56 days for the other animals. The applicability of a cut-off level to the ratio between 17β-testosterone and epitestosterone was evaluated in an attempt to differentiate testosterone abuse from endogenous production. It could be observed that a calculated ratio above this level is strong evidence of drug administration, although a high false-negative rate was obtained.

In this work, a GC-MS/MS method was developed for the determination of anabolic-agent residues in bovine urine. The optimized sample preparation was as follows: enzymatic hydrolysis by β-glucuronidase-sulfatase enzyme from Helix pomatia for 16 h at 37.5 °C, liquid-liquid extraction with diethyl ether, solid-phase extraction with HLB and aminopropylsilane cartridges, and microwave-assisted derivatization using 25 μL of MSTFA/NHI/ethanethiol and full microwave power for 2 min. The method was validated according to Decision 657/2002/EC, Codex Alimentarius, and Manual da Garantia da Qualidade Analítica guidelines. The acceptability criteria for quantitative analysis were met for α-ethinylestradiol, α-nandrolone, β-estradiol, β-zearalanol, β-zearalenol, drostanolone, ethisterone, dienestrol, diethylstilbestrol, hexestrol, megestrol, methyltestosterone, and zearalenone. The analytes α-zearalenol, α-zearalanol, and norethandrolone were validated for qualitative analysis.

This work involved a systematic comparison between serum and urine for the monitoring of anabolic androgenic steroids in livestock. Incurred samples were collected over 120 days from crossbred steers treated with intramuscular injections containing boldenone undecylenate. Independent high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/ MS) methods were used for the assessment of the respective detection windows, which were larger for serum samples. Both matrices presented adequate performance in terms of long-term stability, assessed using an isochronous approach during 196 days at −20 °C and for five freeze−thaw cycles. The effectiveness of the enzymatic hydrolysis reaction using Helix pomatia juice was also compared. The calculated concentrations in serum samples were not statistically influenced by the deconjugation reaction. On the other hand, urine hydrolysis conditions were studied using a 3 3 Box−Behnken Design, in which a central point condition led to a satisfactory deconjugation performance. It could be observed that serum exhibited equivalent or better performance than urine for most of the evaluated criteria; thus, its inclusion in the regulatory analysis of boldenone in cattle is supported.