A simple, rapid, and specific ion-pair liquid chromatographic method for routine determination of the marker residue of oxytetracycline (OTC), namely OTC and 4-epi-oxytetracycline (4-epiOTC), in edible animal tissues (muscle, liver, kidney, and fat) has been developed. Minced tissue samples were acidified at pH 2.7 with 2 mol L(-1) sulfuric acid and extracted with acetonitrile. The extracts were purified by treatment with ammonium sulfate solution and concentrated into 0.1 mol L(-1) phosphoric acid. Baseline separation was carried out isocratically on a Nucleosil 100-5 C(18), 5-microm column using an acetonitrile-0.01 mol L(-1) disodium hydrogen phosphate (20:80, v/v) mobile phase that contained both positively (tetrabutylammonium) and negatively (octanesulfonate) charged pairing ions and EDTA, and was adjusted to pH 3.8. Detection was by UV at 370 nm. The method was fully validated according to Commission Decision 2002/657/EC. Overall recoveries were better than 82.6% and overall relative standard deviation was better than 6% for all the tissues examined. The good analytical characteristics of the method allowed limits of quantification as low as 30 ng g(-1) for muscle and fat and 50 ng g(-1) for liver and kidney, for both OTC and 4-epiOTC, to be realized. The method was successfully used to determine the OTC marker residue in tissues of two sheep intramuscularly administered a commercial OTC formulation.