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News
FISH DISEASE MEASUREMENT: LAUNCH OF YEAR 4 (11th June 2008)
Cefas are pleased to announce the launch of year four 'Fish Disease Measurement'. The programme's cost has been significantly reduced in addition to a number of important key changes.
The implementation of Virtual Slide technology for histopathology ring-tests during Year 3 was a huge success and added a wealth of additional information to participants training material.
For more information please visit the Fish Disease Measurement section.
WATER AND SEDIMENT BIOASSAYS: LAUNCH OF YEAR 3 (29th August 2006)
Year 3 of the Water and Sediment Bioassays programme of the Whole Organism Component has now been launched with calls for registration. The BEQUALM Project Office is pleased to highlight the reduction in the Registration Fees for each of the assays offered. This is due to efficiency gains within the Lead Laboratory and also increased numbers of participants for some assays.
For information on the timetable of activities and registration fees, please visit the Water and Sediment Bioassay page.
NEW BIOASSAYS FOR AQC: CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (1st August 2006)
The BEQUALM Lead Laboratory for the Whole Organism (Bioassays and Fish Disease) component is considering offering QA/QC for additional bioassays as part of the existing programme. The assays to be taken forward are:
• Yeast oestrogen
screen (YES assay)
• Lysosomal fragility (neutral red retention) – in mussel
haemolymph
• DNA adducts – mussels and/or fish
• Acetylcholinesterase activity – mussels and/or fish
For each of these, external QA will be provided through the organisation of yearly intercalibrations, using standard protocols and a suitable reference material(s).
Depending on the level of interest, it is anticipated that these assays will be introduced in Year 3/4 of the BEQUALM Whole Organism component; potential start dates will therefore extend from end of 2006 to autumn 2007.
Interested parties are invited to complete the Expression of Interest form.
The deadline for submission of EOIs is September 30th 2006.
NEW TO BEQUALM! QA/QC FOR THE LUMINESCENT BACTERIA TOXICITY ASSAY (2nd November 2005)
We are very pleased to announce a new addition to the Whole Organism Component of the BEQUALM portfolio of biological effects techniques, providing QA/QC for the Luminescent Bacteria Toxicity Assay.
Dr Juan Ribo at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Spain, has been co-ordinating and conducting yearly interlaboratory comparison exercises with this assay since 1993 in Spain, and in 2004 the Benelux and other countries joined the scheme. QA/QC for this technique is being extended to the rest of Europe via a new collaboration between the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) and BEQUALM.
The Environmental Toxicology Laboratory of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) will essentially become a new Lead Laboratory within the Whole Organism Component, alongside CEFAS, which is the Lead Laboratory for Bioassays and Fish Disease. A programme of intercalibrations and workshops/meetings will be organised by this new Lead Laboratory. The goal of these Inter-laboratory Comparison Exercises is to gain a better knowledge on the capabilities and limitations of this bioassay, sensitivity for different chemicals, and determination of the inter-laboratory and intra-laboratory variability. A forum has been created where luminescent bacteria toxicity assay users can share experiences on the assay itself, its uses, applications, regulatory concerns, etc.
Laboratories
are invited to participate in the 2006 Inter-laboratory Comparison Exercise
for the Luminescent Bacteria Toxicity Assay, scheduled to begin in January
2006. More information on the programme schedule, registration methods
and registration fees can be found by following
this link
