“…Because of the potential health hazard to humans and animals, a quick, sensitive, and specific method is needed to determine the presence of toxins in shellfish. Several methods, including mouse bioassays (Hollingworth and Wekell, 1990), a receptor binding assay (Davio and Fontelo, 1984;Smith and Kitts;1994;Vieytes et al, 1993), tissue culture assays (Gallacher and Birkbeck, 1992;Jellett et al, 1995;Manger et al, 1993), and chemical methods have been used for the analysis of PSP toxins (Hollingworth and Wekell, 1990;Hungerford and Wekell, 1992;Luckas, 1992). However, most chemical methods are time consuming and require expensive instrumentation (Lawrence and Menard, 1991;Luckas, 1992;Mirocha et al, 1992;Oshima, 1995;Pleasance et al, 1992;Sullivan et al, 1988;Thibault et al, 1991); bioassays, however, are nonspecific and sometimes insensitive.…”