|
Task Force in St. Louis As of early October, 2004, the Task Force has grown rapidly and totaled 68 members representing experts and stakeholders from many countries and disciplines. Still the addition of new members to the group is encouraged, especially industry and government stakeholders. In September 2004 (following approval by the AOAC President of the list of voting members) the Task Force approved a set of Analytical Methods Selection Criteria. Their development and approval by the group is an important milestone since these criteria are critical to the mission of the Task Force. At the AOAC Annual Meeting held Sept. 19-23, 2004 in St Louis, two Task Force subgroups, one on brevetoxins and metabolites implicated in neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP) and another on receptor binding assay (RBA) for saxitoxins, had very productive sessions. The brevetoxin group discussed the issues involved in replacing the mouse assay currently used, with the focus on ELISA and LC-MS, and complications imposed by brevetoxin metabolites produced in shellfish. Extraction procedures are now being evaluated and field studies planned. The RBA/saxitoxins group addressed several aspects of the methodology, radiolabeled saxitoxin, and comparisons of mouse bioassay and RBA response. An interlaboratory study is in preparation and will be proposed to the Task Force. There was also an evening Task Force meeting for all members. Two completed interlaboratory studies, one proprietary kit for domoic acid by ELISA (Biosense Labs AS, Norway) and also a nonproprietary LC method for PSP toxins by precolumn oxidation (Lawrence et al, Health Canada) were discussed. Using the Methods Criteria, these two methods were voted on (all 13 voting members of the Task Force participated) and approved for review September 2004. The group also discussed future priority directions, aspects of official methods of analysis, other methods validation options, future meetings, and funding. There was general agreement that the Task Force subgroups are the most effective means of progressing towards validation of new methods and also of ensuring thorough discussions of methods under consideration. By the time of their next meeting (April, 2005) at the "Marine and Freshwater Toxins Analysis: 1st Joint Symposium and AOAC Task Force Meeting" in Baiona, Spain, the Task Force will have several well developed new subgroups in the areas of okadaiate toxins, yessotoxins, domoic acids, and ciguatoxins.  Attending the 2nd meeting of the Marine and Freshwater Toxins Task Force Sept 22, 2004 in St. Louis were, from left to right: Front Row - Jim Lawrence (Health Canada), Stan Bacler (Canadian Food Inspection Agency, or CFIA), Fran Van Dolah (NOAA), Bob Dickey (FDA), Anita Mishra (AOAC), Jane Fox Dobson (US Dept. Commerce), Task Force Chair Jim Hungerford (SPRC, FDA) Second Row - Eloida Marcos (CFIA), Ana Gago-Martinez (Univ. Vigo, Spain), Manuel Franco Leis (OPMEGA, Spain), David Woollard (AsureQuality, New Zealand), Ken Moore (Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference), Bill Watkins (FDA), Mike Quilliam (CNRC, Canada), Jerome Naar (Center for Marine Science, UCNW), Emanuel Hignutt (ADEC, Alaska), Tetsu Goto (Shinshu Univ., Japan) Back Row - Mark Poli (USAMRID), Jean Marc Fremy (AFSSA, France), Paul McNabb (Cawthron Inst., New Zealand), Hans Kleivdal (Biosense Laboratories AS, Norway), Garth Burns (CFIA), Ian Garthwaite (Tecra Intl., Australia), Sherwood Hall (FDA), Karl Schmitt (R-BioPharm AG, Germany), Leanne Flewelling (Florida FWCC), Kurt Johnson (R-Biopharm Inc., USA), Jim Bell (Anresco Laboratories), Nathan Lacy (Washington State Health Dept.)
|
||
