Immunoassay for mercury in seafood and animal tissues

Methylmercury accumulates to high levels in the tissues of fish and other animals through biomagnification. Since methylmercury is extremely toxic, it is important to identify fish or animal tissues with mercury levels too high for human consumption. Current methods for the analysis of mercury are expensive and time- consuming, and they must be performed in a laboratory setting. In this study, a rapid and inexpensive mercury-specific immunoassay developed by BioNebraska was used to measure total mercury in tissue following acid digestion and methylmercury decomposition. A good correlation was obtained between the immunoassay and cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometry (CVAAS). Use of the mercury immunoassay will facilitate the rapid screening of large numbers of tissue samples.