Rapid toxicity testing for blue-green algae investigated

The NSW Office of Water has entered into a collaborative project with a Canadian scientist to develop a method for rapid testing of blue-green algae toxicity.

NSW Water Commissioner David Harriss said today that the NSW Office of Water was hosting a visit by Dr Maurice Laycock, Chief Scientist for a Canadian company responsible for developing fast on-site tests for toxins produced by microscopic marine algae.

“The tests produced by Dr Laycock’s company are designed to detect paralytic shellfish poisons, which is a major cause for concern in many parts of the world where marine shellfish are harvested for food,” said Harriss.

“While the NSW Office of Water’s focus is not on marine shellfish, Dr Laycock’s work is extremely interesting as the most common species of freshwater blue-green algae in Australia can produce the same poison as its marine cousin.

“The ‘rapid test strips’ developed by Dr Laycock’s team detect the presence of poisons in shellfish samples and can provide an early warning to help protect the public.

“Dr Laycock’s visit will help us assess the potential for these rapid test strips to be used on blue-green algae for the same purpose of providing early warning of the presence of toxins which could cause serious illness.”

Harriss said dense blooms of the blue-green alga occur each summer in many water supply reservoirs and rivers in NSW, where the toxins can also pose a threat to recreational water users and town water supply, and have caused the deaths of livestock drinking affected water.

“When blue-green algae blooms occur, the NSW Office of Water and other water managers around the state need to rapidly determine the toxicity of these blooms.

“The rapid test strips developed by Dr Laycock’s company may offer one means of providing an early warning of the toxicity of the blooms.

“As these tests were developed specifically for shellfish tissues and not for blue-green algae, the aim of Dr Laycock’s visit is to see if the tests can be used as a reliable method to analyse the toxicity of the blue-green algal blooms here in Australia.

“Dr Laycock’s visit provides NSW with an excellent opportunity to investigate world-leading research and hopefully adapt this advanced testing technology for the benefit of all NSW residents,” Harriss said.