Abstract: Here an improved HPLC-PAD method was developed and demonstrated suitable for studying the clinical residue elimination of oxytetracycline in milk from postpartum cows with uterine diseases after intrauterine treatment with oxytetracycline.In this study, 0.1 mol/L Na₂EDTA-Mcllvaine buffer solution was used to extract oxytetracycline from milk, n-hexane for degreasing, and a 3 CC Oasis HLB solid-phase extraction column for purification and concentration.A reversed phase chromatographic column Symmetry Shield RP C18 (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) with acetonitrile and 0.048% phosphoric acid solution (pH 2.5) as mobile phase by gradient eluting was applied to as the chromatographic separation condition.The results showed that the retention time of oxytetracycline was 6.5 min with a symmetrical and sharp peak, which was well separated from the impurity in the milk sample.Oxytetracycline standard solutions within the concentrations ranging from 5 to 2 000 μg/kg, had a good linearity between peak areas and the concentrations, R²=0.9999.The recoveries of oxytetracycline at three levels of 10, 20, 100 μg/kg were 87.9%, 90.5% and 87.8%, respectively, with the coefficient of variation ranged from 2.2% to 5.8% in intra-day and 4.0% to 5.1% in inter-day.The LOD was 5 μg/kg and the LOQ was 10 μg/kg.All of those parameters suggested that the optimized method was suitable for the study on the clinical residue elimination of oxytetracycline.29 postpartum cows with uterus disease were randomly divided into four different groups in terms of dosage, 2, 3, 4 and 5 g, and treated with oxytetracycline by intrauterine infusion administration, and the residues of oxytetracycline in milk were detected to study its clinical residue elimination.The results showed the oxytetracycline in milk fell to the MRL during 72 h after treatment at 4 g and below dose group.However, in 5 g dose group, residue levels of oxytetracycline in milk were above the MRL at 72 h after treatment.Therefore, 5 g and the higher were not recommended for intrauterine infusion administration.

Key words: oxytetracycline; milk; residue detection; clinic elimination; HPLC