Analyzing Select Antibiotics in Commercial Biosolid Fertilizers With Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to apply developed LC-MS/MS methods, such as U.S. EPA method 1694, to OTSC standard operating procedures, in order to characterize and quantify multiple antibiotics potentially found in commercial (Class A) biosolid fertilizer samples, which are regularly tested at OTSC for heavy metal contamination. A narrow field of antibiotic compounds with diverse physiochemical properties was chosen to test optimization of recovery from notoriously complex biosolids. Prior research studies have detected low concentrations of ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, and other pharmaceutical classes in Class A biosolids; it is expected through thorough method development we will be able to analyze them for quantification on LC-MS/MS.