CURRENT METHODOLOGIES FOR DETECTION OF TETRODOTOXIN

Abstract

In attempt to protect the consumers from TTX-intoxication, the mouse bioassay has historically been the most universally applied tool to determine the toxicity level in monitoring programs. This bioassay, however, shows low precision and requires a continuous supply of a particular size of mice. These potential drawbacks and the world-wide pressure of refraining from the killing of the live animals subsequently led the scientists for developing alternative chemical methods to the mouse bioassay for TTX detection and quantification. Among them, high-performance liquid chromatog-raphy (HPLC) has largely been used in routine work.