The much-criticized mouse bioassay test is no longer Europe’s official method to determine the safety of seafood species such as oysters and mussels.
The European Commission has approved new chemical methods, such as liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), to test for toxins in seafood. In August, the EC acknowledged that the controversial mouse bioassay test has its shortcomings.
French oyster farmers, who have long voiced their opposition to the mouse bioassay test and questioned its reliability, welcomed the news. In 2009, several bans on key oyster grounds incurred following the results of mouse tests.
“The mouse bioassay test is cruel and obsolete. It represents a constant menace to the oyster farmers,” said the organization representing western France’s Arcachon Bay oyster producers earlier this year.
For the test, three mice receive an injection containing an extract from the digestive glands of bivalves. If two or three mice die within 24 hours of the injection, the shellfish are considered unhealthy and the area from which they were harvested is shut down, according to AFSSA, France’s food-safety agency.
But French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire said this week, “the opening or closing of seafood grounds will, from now on, be decided using new chemical methods established at the community level.”
French laboratories will be equipped with the necessary material to undergo the switch from mouse test to the new methodologies beginning 1 January 2010, confirmed Le Maire’s office, with the mouse test on call until the new methods are up and running.
In December 2009, Europe’s food safety agency, EFSA, concluded “for reasons of animal welfare and poor specificity” there was growing concern regarding the use of the mouse bioassay.
In its conclusion, the agency supported high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) methods as valuable tools to detect the palytoxin group of toxins in shellfish.
“The optimization of these methods for application to shellfish extracts, their (inter-laboratory) validation and the development of standards and reference materials are necessary,” said EFSA.
