Determination of anxiolytic veterinary drugs from biological fertilizer blood meal using liquid chromatography high‐resolution mass spectrometry

A liquid environment‐friendly agricultural material originating from animal blood, blood meal, was employed to detect anxiolytic veterinary drugs using a combination of liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) and positive electrospray ionization Orbitrap mass spectrometry. Every positive ion of the analytes was consistent with [M + H] + , and the accurate mass analysis and mass spectral filtration with a 2‐ppm mass tolerance window were applied to identify and quantitate the analytes and metabolites. The developed LLE method was validated with the lowest calibrated level, linearity ( r 2 ), recovery, repeatability and the within‐laboratory reproducibility, which were in the ranges of 0.3–1 µg/L, 0.9963–0.9995, 48.3–117.5%, 1.1–12.6% and 2.3–15.7%, respectively. The LLE method was compared with a solid‐phase extraction (SPE) method; however, its recoveries were <70% for most of the analytes despite good repeatability of 1.2–7.4%. The analytes and the ascertained acepromazine, azaperone and xylazine metabolites were monitored in four actual liquid blood meal samples, and none of the targeted compounds were observed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.