Jellett Biotek Ltd. has developed a rapid test to screen for paralytic shellfish poisoning. The new test, called MIST Alert for PSP provides a qualitative (yes/no) indication of toxicity in less than 20 minutes. The test is designed as a screening tool for PSP in regulatory labs by screening out negative samples leaving a small number of positive samples to be tested with more expensive analytical tests. Due to the simplicity of the test and its rapid response, it can also be used in harvest management applications to indicate when shellfish are safe to harvest or as a quality control tool in a shellfish processing plant.

The MIST Alert technology was tested using pure standards including neosaxitoxin, (NEO), saxitoxin (STX), decarbamoyl saxitoxin (dcSTX) and gonyautoxin 2/3 (GTX2/3) from the certified reference materials program (PSP-1B) of the National Research Council of Canada. Limits of detection of pure toxins diluted with running buffer were found to be 35,20, 35 and 30 ng/ml respectively, compared to the regulatory limit for closure of 400 ng/ml (equivalent to 80mg/100g) used in most countries.

Over 500 shellfish extracts (AOAC extraction method for PSP) from a previous parallel trial of the MIST Quanti cell based kits at the Department of Environmental Conservation Lab (DEC) in Palmer, Alaska, were tested on the MIST Alert for PSP, and the results for each sample compared to the results previously obtained by DEC using the AOAC mouse bioassay. The extracts were taken from diverse geographical areas and represented diverse shellfish tissue type and a broad range of toxicity.

Results of parallel testing of the Alaskan samples and applications of the technology for the regulatory environment and aquaculture industry will be discussed.