M. Khairunnisak, S. Marni, A.M. Norzela and N. Sakai
Dietary exposure assessment to tetracycline drugs was conducted by multiplying mean residue concentration with mean chicken consumption, also incorporating the processing factor. Residue concentration data was taken from Monitoring and Surveillance Program year 2010-2011 involving 101 chicken samples in different processing plants throughout Malaysia. The chicken consumption data were based on the Malaysian Adult Nutrition Survey 2002-2003 report. The processing factor used for tetracycline (TC) and oxytetracycline (OTC) was 0.5, whereas chlortetracycline (CTC) was 0.1. The highest mean concentration of residue in chicken samples was OTC at 98.11 mg/kg, followed by TC (86.93 ?g/kg) and CTC (51.37 ?g/kg). Mean chicken consumption for Malaysian adults aged 18-59 years old was 31.66 g, whereas 118.00 g at 97.5th percentile. The sum of exposure 10 TCs was slightly higher in men compared to women (3.41 and 2.76 ?g/person/day, respectively). In all cases, the exposure was always highest in OTC, due to the high mean residue found in chicken samples. Among geographical zones, exposure was highest in the central, followed by east coast, southern and finally northern zone (3.2 – 2.4 pg/person/day). Overall, the sum of exposure to tetracycline drugs among adults in Malaysia in the current study was 3.09 ?g/person/day, whereas 11.52 ?g/person/day at 97 .5th percentile (heavy users), and could be considered negligible (less than 1 % Acceptable Daily Intake).