Charm Sciences has announced a five-year renewable contract award by the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) for Charm's kidney inhibition swab tests.
The company will provide Charm KIS (kidney inhibition swab) tests to US Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors at slaughter facilities to screen for sulphonamides and antibiotic drugs under the National Residue Program.
FSIS will begin implementing the Charm KIS test in phases starting with cattle (FSIS notice 50-09), and eventually implement it for all livestock.
Fusing simplicity, speed, and sensitivity, the Charm KIS test rapidly screens broad spectrum antimicrobial drugs in both fresh and thawed tissue.
The KIS test detects close to kidney tolerances for sulphonamides, beta-lactams, tetracyclines, aminoglycosides, macrolides, and lincosamides.
The KIS test has been successfully applied to beef and pork kidney, poultry serum, water, feed extracts, and live animal urine samples.
KIS reagents are self-contained, solvent-free, and pre-measured in a single-use, disposable swab.
Testing can be performed in a farm, slaughterhouse or laboratory setting.
The KIS test requires no sample preparation or extraction and is performed in four easy steps: cut tissue with KIS housing; absorb sample on the KIS swab; re-insert swab into housing and twist to activate test; incubate for three hours and observe colour change.
KIS incubators are available for low, medium, and high sample throughput.
