Fast and robust simultaneous determination of three veterinary antibiotics in groundwater and surface water using a tandem solid-phase extraction with high-performance liquid chromatography–UV detection

A simple and robust analytical method is presented in which the three veterinary antibiotics oxytetracycline (OTC), sulfachloropyridazine (SCP) and tylosin (TYL) were simultaneously determined in surface water and groundwater. The three compounds were simultaneously extracted from the water samples using a mixture of methanol, EDTA and McIlvaine buffer (citric acid and sodium orthophosphate) and then cleaned-up and pre-concentrated by solid-phase extraction using sacrificial Isolute strong anion-exchange cartridges, to remove interfering organic material, and Waters Oasis hydrophilic–liphophilic balance polymer cartridges, to retain the compounds, in tandem. Analysis was performed using liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. Recoveries for river water samples spiked at 10 and 1 μg l−1 were respectively 99.6±4.6 and 99.4±8.4% for OTC; 99.9±2.2 and 105.0±5.7% for SCP; and 94.9±2.4 and 71.6±8.2% for TYL. Overall limits of detection based on pre-concentrating 400 ml of sample were 0.35 μg l−1 for OTC and TYL and 0.25 μg l−1 for SCP.