title: ITREOH building of regional capacity to monitor recreational water: development of a non-commercial microcystin ELISA and its impact on public health policy.
abstract: In 2001, a University of California, Davis-University of the Republic, Montevideo, partnership created a Fogarty ITREOH program to exploit the potential of ELISA to provide a low-cost environmental analysis attractive to economically distressed countries of temperate South America. This paper describes the development and validation of an ELISA method for the determination of Cyanobacteria microcystin toxins in algal blooms, which release hepatotoxic metabolites that can reach toxic levels in rivers, lakes, or coastal estuaries used for recreation or water supplies. The assay made possible the first systematic monitoring of water from the Rio de la Plata at Montevideo over two summers. The project has been integrated into a bi-national effort to monitor the Rio de la Plata.
authors.affiliation: Cátedra de Bioquímica, Facultad de Quimíca, Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Beatriz M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Brena
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Díaz
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sienra
authors.forename: Graciela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ferraz
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hellman
authors.forename: Gualberto
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Sapienza
authors.forename: Jerold A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Last
mesh_terms: D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000032:analysis; D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000737:chemistry; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D011998:Recreation; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014881:Water Supply / Q000592:standards*
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins