Abstract
In veterinary medicine, a large number of pharmacological agents are used for prophylactic purpose and treatment. Antibiotics are in the first place among most commonly and inappropriately used pharmacological agents. Although antibiotics play a crucial role in the treatment of the illnesses, misuse of them causes residue problem in the food of animal origin such as milk, eggs, meat, and honey. The food containing antibiotic residues endanger public health. To protect the public health, maximum residue limits for pharmacologically active substances in foods of animal origin have been established by the European Union. To detect the antibiotic residue in foodstuff, several methods such as microbial inhibition tests, immunoassays and chromatographic methods have been established. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method is widely used in a laboratory gives reliable results and offers to work with a large number of samples in a short time. The most important step in the development of this method is the immunogen synthesis. Antibiotics are generally not able to stimulate the immune response because of their low molecular weight. To stimulate the immune response, the immunogen is synthesized by conjugating antibiotics to a protein of sufficient size. The conjugation of antibiotic to protein is mostly performed using some methods such as carbodiimide, glutaraldehyde, and the active ester. Conjugation method is chosen depending on the chemical structure of used antibiotics. Specific antibodies are generated by immunizing the experimental animals with the obtained immunogen. Then, methods are optimized and developed for various foodstuff.