The alga Alexandrium minutum produces paralytic toxins
that contaminate shellfish, and which can poison the consumer. Monitoring this
alga requires fairly complex means, specialized personnel and time (optical
counting and mass spectrometry). To better anticipate the necessary measures to
be taken by the shellfish farmers and French coastal communities, a team from
the CEA-iBEB (Marcoule) in collaboration with IFREMER has developed a type of
strip test. This field test, accomplished with the help of specific
antibodies, is simple to use, rapid (15 min) and therefore suitable for an
on-site alert system.