Liquid chromatography-electrochemical detection of furazolidone and metabolite in extracts of incurred tissues.

One-day-old chicks were raised to maturity on a diet fortified with 0.0055% furazolidone. Analyses of tissue extracts by a liquid chromatographic-electrochemical detection screening procedure for nitro-containing drugs disclosed, in addition to the parent drug, an unidentified metabolite in the liver and breast tissue of the mature birds sacrificed while on the fortified feed. No evidence of residues of the drug or metabolite was found in birds removed from the medicated feed 48 h prior to sacrifice. In view of the rapid in vivo and postmortem metabolism of the parent drug in liver tissue, the metabolite can serve as an alternative means of detecting furazolidone residues in chicken tissues.