Determination of Micronutrients in Feed Products by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Micronutrients are widely used in feed products and are very important to the health and productivity of farm and domestic animals. It is imperative to have analytical capabilities for rapid and accurate results. By using a simple nitric acid digestion of the feed coupled with inductively coupled plasmamass spectrometry (ICP/MS), rapid and accurate results can be obtained. ICP/MS has many advantages over classical wet chemical methods, atomic absorption methods, and other ICP methods: speed of analysis, reduced standards preparation, reduced waste stream, and qualitative scan capabilities. One gram portions of feed products were placed into 250 mL volumetric flasks and digested with 30 mL concentrated high-purity nitric acid for about 20 min. They were then brought to volume with ultra-high-purity water, shaken, and filtered. Ten milliliter portions were taken, and 0.5 mL internal standards were added. Standards were made up in concentrations to agree with the expected range of the desired element. Analysis of check samples from the Association of American Feed Control Officials shows that this method is comparable with other methods of choice