New biosensor detects antibiotics in salmon
Several trials for this biosensor are being carried out in salmon farming sites belonging to Salmones Multiexport. Austral Biotech expects this product to be ready for the market in 2013.
The general manager of the company, Virginia Garretón, comments that salmon cannot be harvested until fish has a low antibiotic level. She further explains that today the antibiotic presence is checked on laboratories and those exams are expensive and time-consuming. "Using our biosensor you can detect antibiotics on spot and obtain results immediately," she argues.
According to the financial journal Diario Financiero, the company is using a similar technique to detect the presence of some compounds of the fungus Brettanomyces in wine, which affects its quality and thus its price.
