ABSTRACT. A sensitive and rapid high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed and used for the simultaneous determination of bilirubin and biliverdin in pericardial fluid samples collected from broilers at a poultry inspection site. A photodiode array detector distinguishing the bilirubin (UV 450 nm) and biliverdin (365 nm) was used as an analytical detector for HPLC system. An internal-surface reversed-phase silica support column was used, and the mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile: 0.5 M Tris HCl buffer (20:80, pH 7.2). Bilirubin was detected from all of the jaundiced pericardial fluid samples, and a small amount of biliverdin was detected with bilirubin in some samples. These jaundiced broilers had hepatic or bile duct lesions similar to those found in edible animals. From these results, a working definition of jaundiced broilers for poultry inspection sites was suggested: bilirubin is detectable from pericardial fluid and the carcass is in a state of yellow color change. -KEY WORDS: broiler, HPLC, jaundice.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 59(8): 677-680, 1997 bilirubin (Bδ), DCB, monoconjugated bilirubin (MCB) and UCBL as described in our previous report [11]. The liquid chromatograph consisted of LC-6AD and an auto injector SIL-6B (Shimadzu Seisakusyo Co., Kyoto, Japan) using an internal-surface reversed-phase silica support (ISRP) column (Pinkerton column) [4,5]. The ISRP column was used with a guard column packed with the same packing material. The mobile phase contained 20% acetonitrile (Wako Pure Chemicals Co., Tokyo) and 80% 0.5M Tris-HCl buffer (pH 7.2). The eluants were measured by a photodiode array (PDA) detector at a wavelength of 450 nm for bilirubin and 365 nm for BV. The lower limits of detection, standard lines and recovery rates in each standard of UCBL, DCB and BV were measured. The pretreatment procedure for the ISRP column was very simple compared to the reversed phase column. A volume of 0.3-0.5 ml of sample was put into the Eppendorf tube, then centrifuged at 3,500 g for 6 min. Finally 20 µl of the supernatant was injected into HPLC.Investigation of sample availability: Nine pericardial