Validation and robustness testing of a HPLC method for the determination of avermectins and moxidectin in animal liver samples using an alumina column clean-up

A multi-residue method has been developed for the quantitative determination of moxidectin, abamectin, doramectin and ivermectin in liver samples, with capability for qualitative identification of the presence of eprinomectin. Liver samples are extracted with isooctane, followed by clean-up on alumina-N solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridges. Extracts are derivatised and determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. The method was validated using bovine liver fortified at levels of 4 and 20 mu g kg(-1) with the drugs. The mean recovery from bovine liver ranged between 90 and 96%. The intra and inter-assay variations showed RSD typically of < 5% and < 10%, respectively. The procedure was applied also to ovine and porcine liver, giving similar results. A robustness study, carried out on the alumina clean-up step, indicated that the step is relatively insensitive to method changes. However, significant differences overall were found for the type of alumina and/or commercial SPE cartridge used. The limit of quantitation of the method is 2 mu g kg(-1) (ppb).