High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of biogenic amines in poultry carcasses

Biogenic amines, produced by bacterial decarboxylation of amino acids, have been associated with toxicological symptoms in broilers fed various poultry byproducts. A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method is described for the quantitation of eight biogenic amines (tryptamine, phenylethylamine, putrescine, cadaverine, histamine, tyramine, spermidine, and spermine) in chicken carcasses. Amines were extracted with perchloric acid, derivatized with dansyl chloride, separated using gradient elution (methanol and water), and detected by fluorescence. Benzylamine was used as the internal standard. Linearity, repeatability, and recovery of the method were evaluated. The method was linear for all of the amines studied at concentrations ranging from 0.05 to 25 microg/mL. Average recoveries ranged from 92.6% to 96.8% for all amines except for histamine, which was 74.6%.     

Antibiotic treatment of zebrafish mycobacteriosis: tolerance and efficacy of treatments with tigecycline and clarithromycin

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are a popular model organism used in a growing number of research fields. Maintaining healthy, disease‐free laboratory fish is important for the integrity of many of these studies. Mycobacteriosis is a chronic bacterial infection caused by several Mycobacterium spp. and is the second most common disease found in laboratory zebrafish. Current mycobacteriosis control measures recommend the removal of infected fish and in severe outbreaks, depopulation. These measures can be effective, but less disruptive measures should be assessed for controlling mycobacteriosis, particularly when valuable and rare lines of fish are affected. Here, the in vivo efficacy of two drug candidates, tigecycline (1 μg g^?1) and clarithromycin (4 μg g^?1), was tested in adult zebrafish experimentally infected with Mycobacterium chelonae. We assessed both short (14 day)‐ and long‐term (30 day) treatments and evaluated fecundity and pathological endpoints. Fecundity and histology results show that zebrafish tolerated antibiotics. Antibiotic treatments did not significantly impact the prevalence of acid‐fast granulomas; however, the severity of infections (acid‐fast granuloma intensity) was significantly decreased following treatments.