Objective: To establish a method to determine 5 hazardous elements in animal traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) by microwave digestion-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).Methods: HNO 3-H 2 O 2 was used to decompose animal TCM, the working parameters of ICP-MS were optimized, and the matrix effect and the mass spectrum interferences were corrected by the in-line addition of Ge, In and Bi internal standard solution and the collided reaction cell technology (KED mode), respectively.Results: The detection limits of 5 hazardous elements were within the range of 0.04-0.52 μg·L-1 , the relative standard deviations (RSD) were within the range of 1.1%-4.8% , and the recoveries were within the range of 92.4%-110.0%.The method was applied to determine the 5 hazardous elements in 40 batches of animal TCM.The results indicated that some kinds of hazardous elements in animal TCM were high, and more attention should be paid to the problems in the production and use of animal TCM.Conclusion: The analysis method is simple, rapid and accurate, and suitable for the determination of hazardous elements in animal TCM.