Abstract
The present study investigated the residue depletion and WTs of EF and its main metabolite, ciprofloxacin, in largemouth bass after ad libitum administration in commercial fish farming based on statistical approaches. Samples collected at pre-determined time points were assessed using high-performance liquid chromatography. If the concentrations of medicine were less than the quantitative limit, they were set to be half of the limit of quantitative. The terminal elimination of the target compound was assumed to fit a one-compartment model. The statistical methods of Bartlett's test and Cochran's test were used to inspect the homogeneity of the log-transformed data. The lack-of-fit test and F-test were used to check the linearity of the regression line. Outliers were assessed using standardized residuals. The final WT was estimated using the 95% percentile with a 95% confidence level. The WTs of EF were calculated to be 46, 29, 33, 46, and 20 days for the muscle + skin, plasma, gill, kidney, and liver, respectively. After the risk assessment, the values of the hazard quotient were calculated to be far less than 1, indicating that the risk of residual EF was particularly low in the edible tissues of largemouth bass after medicine depletion for various WTs.