Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2017, 6th- 8th June, Milan, Italy HAF © 2013 Vol. IV, No. 1s ISSN: 2283-3927 l Keywords Pesticides residues, GC-MS/MS, Food Safety, Environmental contaminants CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Giuseppe Labella giuseppe.labella@unimi.it JOURNAL HOME PAGE riviste.unimi.it/index.php/haf Analyses of organochlorine pesticides residues in eels (Anguilla anguilla) from Lake Garda using Gas chromatography coupled with Tandem Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) Giuseppe F. Labella1*, Luca M. Chiesa1, Sara Panseri1, Francesco Arioli1 1University of Milan, Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety, Italy Abstract Lake Garda is located in one of the most populated and industrialized area of Italy (Camusso et al., 2001). Therefore, the Lake water, and also the fish species present, could be affected by environmental contamination. European eels (Anguilla anguilla) are considered as suitable matrix for biomonitoring environmental contaminants in European water (Belpaire et al., 2007), being widespread in many European waters and highly contaminated by lipophilic compounds, due to the high lipid content (up to 40%) (Larsson et al., 1991). Moreover, eel is an edible species (its farming currently supplies approximately 45,000 tons/year) (Nielsen et al., 2008), so it also represents a public health issue. Based on these considerations, the aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of fourteen organochlorine pesticides (OCs) in forty-five eels (Anguilla anguilla) from Lake Garda, using Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) procedure for the analytes extraction and Gas chromatography coupled with Tandem Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) for the analysis of OCs. GC-MS/MS analysis was developed and validated according to the SANTE/11945/2015 guidelines. Uncontaminated eel sample (previously checked for the presence of OCs and considered blank with a concentration of compounds < Limit of Detection) were used for all procedure's optimization steps. For all the OCs, satisfactory results were achieved in terms of linearity (R2 higher than 0.985); recovery (ranging between 70–120 %) and repeatability (coefficient of variation % lower than 20 %). The results met the validation criteria required by EU guidelines. Regarding eel samples, several pesticides were detected, but DDT and its metabolites were found with the highest prevalence (92 %). The concentration range was from not detected (n.d.) to 19000 ng g-1. Although DDTs levels in the environment are declining (Albaiges et al., 2011), they continue to bioaccumulate in tissues of human and animal and biomagnify in food chains. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2017, 6th- 8th June, Milan, Italy HAF © 2013 Vol. IV, No. 1s ISSN: 2283-3927 References Camusso, M., Balestrin, R., Binelli, A. 2001. Use of zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) to assess trace metal contamination in the largest Italian subalpine lakes. Chemosphere. 44, 263-270. Belpaire, C., Goemans, G. 2007. The European eel Anguilla anguilla, a rapporteur of the chemical status for the water framework directive? Vie Milieu. 57, 235–252. Larsson, P., Hamrin, S., Okla, L. 1991. Factors determining the uptake of persistent pollutants in a eel population (Anguilla anguilla L.). Environ Pollut. 69, 39-50. Nielsen, T., Prouzet, P. 2008. Capture-based aquaculture of the wild European eel (Anguilla anguilla). In A. Lovatelli & P. F. Holthus (Eds.), Capture-based aquaculture. Global overview. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. No. 508 (pp. 141– 168). Rome: FAO. Albaiges, J., Murciano, C., Pon, J., 2011. Hazardous substances in the Mediterranean: a spatial and temporal assessment. In: UNEP/MAP, Consultation Meeting to Review MED POL Monitoring Activities Athens, 22 e 23 November 2011, p. 106. Annex II. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en