Biosensor screening for veterinary drug residues in foodstuffs.

The advent of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor has led to many applications in diverse fields from the pharmaceutical industry to the life sciences and other areas within biotechnology. One area that has seen a significant increase in applications is the testing for veterinary drug residues in foodstuffs. These include tests for antibiotics, beta-agonists, and antiparasitic drugs. The introduction of the Biacore Q in the late 1990s, an SPR biosensor dedicated to the food industry, and the complementary development of kits to test for these residues mean that end users have a viable alternative screening test to the established enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques. This paper reviews many SPR biosensor veterinary drug tests that have been developed, with particular emphasis placed on kit-based assays.