Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering For Field

The use of sub-therapeutic concentrations of anti-microbial agents in animal feed has contributed to theproductivity of the U.S. meat and dairy industries by preventing infectious diseases, by decreasing theamount of feed required and by increasing the rate of animal weight gain. However, failure to observerecommended practices of drug withdrawal can result in concentrations of antibiotic residues in meatand dairy products that may lead to adverse human physical effects. To address this situation,American Research Corporation of Virginia has evaluated the use of surface enhanced Ramanscattering (SERS) in detecting as low as 100 picograms of sulfamethazine in water. It is now necessaryto extend these results to a wide range of antibiotics in meat and dairy products. Phase I willinvestigate the feasibility of using SERS for rapid determination of antibiotic residues by achieving theobjectives that consist of extension of pulsed laser deposition procedures for fabricating SERSsubstrates, modification of SERS substrates using molecular self assembly, development of extractionprocedures, and acquisition of families of test data leading to the development of an engineering modelfor extensive test in the Phase II program. The program is innovative in combining molecular selfassembly with SERS spectroscopy to provide a selective test for antibiotic residues.