A novel magnetic imprinted electrochemical sensor was developed based on magnetic multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) for sensitive determination of kanamycin in complicated matrixes. The magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MMIPs) were prepared based on MWCNT decorated Fe3O4 nanoparticles using kanamycin as the template molecule and methacrylic acid (MAA) as the functional monomer. The performance of the imprinted sensor was investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) in detail. The sensitivity of the magnetic imprinted electrochemical sensor was improved attributing to the large specific surface area and excellent electrical conductivity of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Under the optimum conditions, the response currents of the magnetic imprinted electrochemical sensor exhibited a linear relationship toward the negative logarithm of kanamycin concentrations ranged from 1.0 x 10(-10) mol L-1 to 1.0 x 10(-6) mol L-1 with a detection limit of 2.3 x 10(-11) mol L-1 (signal to noise ratio is 3). The magnetic imprinted electrochemical sensor was applied to detect trace kanamycin in real samples successfully with the recoveries of 92.5-105.3%. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.