A sensitive and specific double-antibody RIA for a bovine pregnancy-associated glycoprotein (bPAG) is described. The limit of detection was 0.2 ng/ml. The assay was specific for bPAG in that pituitary and placental gonadotropic hormones and other placental or serum proteins assayed in serial dilutions did not cross-react. The RIA allowed measurement of bPAG in placental extracts, fetal serum, fetal fluids, and serum or plasma of pregnant cows. About 20% of unbred heifers and nonpregnant cows had detectable levels ranging from 0.30 +/- 0.09 to 0.50 +/- 0.17 ng/ml (mean +/- SD), and 15% of bull sera showed higher concentrations (3.01 +/- 1.73 ng/ml) of bPAG or bPAG-like protein. Variations among animals was observed in fetal serum bPAG concentrations. Bovine PAG was detected in maternal peripheral blood at Day 22 of pregnancy (mean +/- SD, 0.38 +/- 0.13 ng/ml) in some animals and at Day 30 in all pregnant cows. Peripheral serum bPAG levels increased progressively to 3.60 +/- 1.73 ng/ml (mean +/- SD) at Day 30 of pregnancy, to 24.53 +/- 8.81 ng/ml at Day 120, and to 1551.91 +/- 589.68 ng/ml at Day 270. Peak concentration of bPAG was 2462.42 +/- 1017.88 ng/ml and it occurred 1-5 days prior to parturition. After delivery, bPAG concentrations decreased steadily to 499.63 +/- 267.20 ng/ml at Day 14 postpartum (pp), 10.12 +/- 7.84 ng/ml at Day 60 pp, and 1.44 +/- 1.08 ng/ml at Day 90 pp. The undetectable concentration (less than 0.20 ng/ml) was reached by Day 100 +/- 20 pp. An investigation undertaken in Holstein heifers, Holstein cows, and Hereford cows used as recipients for purebred Holstein embryos supplied evidence of the influence of breed of recipient and sex of fetuses on peripheral concentrations of bPAG. A herd of 430 Holstein-Friesian heifers that had received transferred embryos were bled at Day 35 postestrus (pe) for measurement of bPAG. The bPAG was detected in 287 of 430 serum samples analyzed. By rectal palpation performed at Day 45 pe, 267 heifers with detectable levels of bPAG at Day 35 pe were confirmed to be pregnant as were 3 of 143 heifers previously diagnosed as not pregnant by RIA. These results suggest that detection of this placental-specific antigen in the serum could be used as a specific serological method for early pregnancy diagnosis in cattle from 28 days after breeding.

A direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed to detect a broad range of (fluoro)quinolones in various matrices. In the optimized generic test, anti-sarafloxacin antibodies in combination with norfloxacin conjugate showed 50% binding inhibition at 0.21 ng mL(-)(1) for sarafloxacin in buffer. Screening for this class of antibiotics is accomplished using a simple, rapid extraction carried out with a 1:1 mixture of methanol and phosphate-buffered saline adjusted to pH 7.4. This common extraction was able to detect 15 (fluoro)quinolone residues such as sarafloxacin, norfloxacin, difloxacin, ciprofloxacin, pefloxacin, ofloxacin, cinoxacin, danofloxacin, enrofloxacin, marbofloxacin, lomefloxacin, enoxacin, flumequine, oxolinic acid, and nalidixic acid in pig kidney, poultry muscle, egg, fish, and shrimp. The assay's detection capabilities (CCbeta) for most of these compounds were <10 microg kg(-)(1) except for the sarafloxacin-, oxolinic acid-, flumequine-, and cinoxacin-spiked matrices, the estimated CCbeta values of which were <4, <25, <100, and <200 microg kg(-)(1), respectively.

Vietnam is an important producer of aquaculture products, and aquatic products are essential to the Vietnamese diet. However, Vietnam also has very little enforced regulation pertaining to antibiotic usage in domestic aquaculture, which raises concerns for antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria. In this study, analysis was conducted on the presence of antibiotic residues in domestically sold fish and shrimp raised in freshwater farms in Vietnam, and an assessment of farmers’ knowledge of proper antibiotics usage was performed. The results indicated that a quarter of tested aquaculture products were antibiotic screening test positive, and there is a general lack of knowledge about the purpose and proper usage of antibiotics by aquaculture producers. Farmers’ decision-making processes about antimicrobial use are influenced by biased sources of information, such as drug manufacturers and sellers, and by financial incentives.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10393-014-1006-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Synthetic insulins such as Humalog Lispro, Novolog Aspart, or Lantus Glargine, are commonly employed for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus owing to convenient handling and fast or prolonged bioavailability. However, the misuse of insulin in sports has been reported often, and the international doping control system requires a reliable and robust assay to determine the presence or absence of related drugs prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Qualitative evidence of administered substances, which is preferably obtained by mass spectrometry, is of utmost importance. Plasma specimens of 2 mL were fortified with three synthetic insulin analogues and purified by immunoaffinity chromatography, and extracts were analyzed by microbore liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry. Product ion scan experiments of intact proteins enabled the differentiation between endogenously produced insulin and its synthetic analogues by collisionally activated dissociation of multiply charged precursor ions. This top-down sequencing-based assay allows the assignment of individual fragment ions, in particular, of those comprising modifications that are originating from C-termini of B-chains. Recoveries of synthetic insulins from plasma aliquots ranged from 91 to 98%, and detection limits were accomplished at 0.5 ng/mL for all target analytes.

New, potentially performance enhancing compounds have frequently been introduced to licit and illicit markets and rapidly distributed via worldwide operating Internet platforms. Developing fast analytical strategies to follow these new trends is one the most challenging issues for modern doping control analysis. Even if reference compounds for the active drugs are readily obtained, their unknown metabolism complicates effective testing strategies. Recently, a new class of small C-terminally amidated peptides comprising four to seven amino acid residues received considerable attention of sports drug testing authorities due to their ability to stimulate growth hormone release from the pituitary. The most promising candidates are the growth hormone releasing peptide (GHRP)-1, -2, -4, -5, -6, hexarelin, alexamorelin, and ipamorelin. With the exemption of GHRP-2, the entity of these peptides represents nonapproved pharmaceuticals; however, via Internet providers, all compounds are readily available. To date, only limited information on the metabolism of these substances is available and merely one metabolite for GHRP-2 is established. Therefore, a comprehensive in vivo (po and iv administration in rats) and in vitro (with human serum and recombinant amidase) study was performed in order to generate information on urinary metabolites potentially useful for routine doping controls. The urine samples from the in vivo experiments were purified by mixed-mode cation-exchange solid-phase extraction and analyzed by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) separation followed by high-resolution/high-accuracy mass spectrometry. Combining the high resolution power of a benchtop Orbitrap mass analyzer for the first metabolite screening and the speed of a quadrupole/time-of-flight (Q-TOF) instrument for identification, urinary metabolites were screened by means of a sensitive full scan analysis and subsequently confirmed by high-accuracy product ion scan experiments. Two deuterium-labeled internal standards (triply deuterated GHRP-4 and GHRP-2 metabolite) were used to optimize the extraction and analysis procedure. Overall, 28 metabolites (at least three for each GHRP) were identified from the in vivo samples and main metabolites were confirmed by the human in vitro model. All identified metabolites were formed due to exopeptidase- (amino- or carboxy-), amidase-, or endopeptidase activity.