Abstract:The objectives of this study were to understand the drug residues status and dietary exposure risk of Ictalurus punctatus in typical aquaculture areas of Jiangsu. According to the three growth cycles of Ictalurus punctatus (March, July and October), 37 drugs of 6 categories in Ictalurus punctatus from 5 aquaculture areas of Jiangsu were detected by high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLCMS/MS). The results showed that the overall qualification rate of maximum residue limits (MRLs) for 37 drugs of 6 categories in Ictalurus punctatus was 91.7%, among which nitrofuran metabolites, sulfonamides and macrolides were not detected. Chloramphenicol in amide alcohols was not detected, while the detection rates of thiamphenicol and florfenicol were 8.33% and 54.2% along with residues from ND (not detected) to 6.32 μg/kg and from ND to 269.5 μg/kg, respectively. The residues of both antibiotics were below the MRLs. Four kinds of prohibited drugs in quinolones including lomefloxacin, pefloxacin, ofloxacin and norfloxacin were not detected, and only enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin were detected. In order to ensure the edible safety, Ictalurus punctatus was recommended to appear on the market after withdrawal period of more than 20 days when the detections of enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin exceeded the maximum residue limit of 100 μg/kg. Through dietary exposure assessment, the estimated daily intake (EDI) or acceptable daily intake (ADI) values of enrofloxacin, thiamphenicol and florfenicol were 0-1.34×10-2, 0-1.07×10-4 and 0-1.18×10-2, respectively. The EDI/ADI values of these three antibiotics were far less than 1, indicated that the dietary exposure risk level was within the acceptable range. [Chinese Fishery Quality and Standards, 2021, 11(5): 01-08]