How practical is the mouse bio assay for shellfish? It’s saved some human lives. But in this episode we take a look at its practicality and future in the state of Alaska.

We continue our chat with Shannon Cellan the Environmental Lab Manager at the Sitka Tribe of Alaska about the mouse bioassay and shellfish. I also go off on some tangents—sifting through legislative documents, taking a peek into some old spycraft and looking back at some old reports on portable tests for paralytic shellfish toxin.

Vocab!

Microgram

Mouse Unit

Litmus

ADEC

High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography-Post Column Oxidation (HPLC-PCOX) method

Links!

Sitka Tribe of Alaska Environmental Research Labhttps://sitkatribe.org/our-services/resource-protection-programs/sta-environmental-research-lab/

Vintage PST Reports Mentioned in Episode (I scanned them—they’re all public documents so I don’t think there’s any copyright issues)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15sGFa7apQQR2bk40QXLM8wEJ4kLwczVO?usp=drive_link

From the CIA Reading Room…https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00806R000201180060-3.pdf

Government Budget & Agency Resources (Alaska)

* Alaska Legislature — DEC Budget Comparison (Senate Enacted)

https://www.legfin.akleg.gov/BudgetReports/LY2025/Operating/Enacted//DEC-TransactionCompare-Senate-Enacted-wD.pdf?1757971239

* State of Alaska FY2025 Governor’s Operating Budget: Department of Environmental Conservation Environmental Health RDU/Component Budget Summary

https://omb.alaska.gov/ombfiles/25_budget/DEC/Proposed/7_comp3202.pdf

Shellfish Safety & Monitoring (Public Health / DEC)

* DEC Shellfish Biotoxin Monitoring Planhttps://dec.alaska.gov/eh/fss/shellfish/resources/bivalve-shellfish-biotoxin-monitoring-plan/

* DEC Shellfish Permitting Guidehttps://dec.alaska.gov/eh/fss/shellfish/resources/permit-guide/

Scientific Methods & Research

* PubMed: High Pressure Liquid Chromatography–Post Column Oxidationhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21919349/

* NOAA Coastal Science — Receptor Binding Assay for Paralytic Shellfish Poisoninghttps://coastalscience.noaa.gov/project/advancing-the-receptor-binding-assay-for-multi-species-monitoring-of-paralytic-shellfish-poisoning/

Health & Toxicology

* EMRA — Shellfish Poisoning Overviewhttps://www.emra.org/emresident/article/shellfish-poisoning

* UAA Fact Sheet — Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP)https://accscatalog.uaa.alaska.edu/sites/default/files/Fact%20sheet%20PSP%20-%20Public%20Health.pdf

* Alaska Epidemiology Bulletin Newsletter - Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning Update ― Alaska, 1993–2021https://epi.alaska.gov/bulletins/docs/b2022_05.pdf

Other / Contextual

* Alaska Public — Article on Spy Stuff and Shellfishhttps://alaskapublic.org/news/2021-04-26/alaskas-secret-cold-war-export-shellfish-toxin-for-the-cia

* Reddit Discussion — Source of MilliporeSigma’s Porcine Productshttps://www.reddit.com/r/labrats/comments/1pfymyt/what_is_the_source_of_milliporesigmas_porcine/

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekelpshow.substack.com