Prevalence of zeranol, taleranol andFusariumspp. toxins in urine: implications for the control of zeranol abuse in the European Union

Abstract

There is currently little information concerning the prevalence of zeranol and taleranol in animal urine following metabolism of the naturally occurring Fusarium spp. toxins. An epidemiological study is described which involves four European Union control laboratories in which 8008 urine samples were screened for the presence of zeranol using a time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay (TR-FIA). Of these samples, 93.6% screened negative for zeranol. All samples testing positive for zeranol were then analysed with a confirmatory method. Based on the confirmatory results, the TR-FIA-positive samples were then categorized as false-positive, true-positive or 'equivocal' (zeranol/taleranol and the Fusarium spp. toxins detected). The true-positive samples represented only 0.05% of the total number of samples (n = 4). After statistical analysis, 170 of 174 equivocal samples proved to belong to a 'normal' population in which the amount of zeranol/taleranol could be related to the total amount of Fusarium spp. toxins through a linear regression with a 99% prediction interval. This suggested that the presence of zeranol in these samples might be due to in vivo metabolism of the Fusarium spp. toxins. The presence of zeranol in the four remaining 'outliers' might be attributable to zeranol abuse rather than to natural contamination. The results are of interest for control laboratories as they might provide an analytical tool to help distinguish between abuse and natural contamination in zeranol testing.

Simultaneous determination of resorcylic acid lactones, β and α trenbolone and stilbenes in bovine urine by UHPLC/MS/MS

“…Both analytes could also be found in animals that had consumed feed naturally contaminated with zearalenone [4,5]. In conclusion to ascertain the use of zeranol as growth promoter it is necessary to analyse simultaneously all the resorcyclic acid lactones (RALs) implicated in the metabolism of zeranol and zearalenone [6]. The current view by the EU Reference Laboratories is that the matrix of choice for this control is urine.…”

Prediction and Experimental Evaluation of Soil Sorption by Natural Hormones and Hormone Mimics

“…Synthetic hormones and their major metabolites, for example, trendione (TND) and 17α-trenbolone (17α-TB) from 17β-TB (Figure ), are excreted only by animals to which the growth promoters were administered. Natural and synthetic hormones and their major metabolites are routinely detected in livestock wastes (see, e.g., refs − ), manure-fertilized crop fields (see, e.g., refs and ), and agriculturally affected surface waters (see, e.g., refs − ). Furthermore, those compounds that are not altered by livestock are converted by microbial processes in soils to their oxidized derivatives (i.e., zeranol to zeralanone and estradiol to estrone).…”

Novel analytical methods for the determination of steroid hormones in edible matrices

“…In order to distinguish zeranol abuse from Fusarium toxin contamination in food animals Launay et al [137] concluded that both zeranol and the Fusarium toxins (␣-zearalenol, ␤-zearalenol and zearalenone) must be measured in the case of natural occurrence. As reviewed by Stolker et al [32], several analytical approaches for tissue samples (liver, muscle and kidney) are described, all of them using the conventional techniques, such as liquid or gas chromatographic coupled to mass spectrometry [137][138][139][140].…”

“…Among the different metabolites of zearalenone, the non-steroidal oestrogenic ␣-zearalanol (zeranol) has been marketed as a growth promoter [135][136][137] with estrogenic activity with the commercial name "Ralgro". Thus, the finding of zeranol in an animal might, on its own, be an in sufficient proof that malicious abuse of zeranol has occurred.…”