Trace analysis of pollutants by use of honeybees, immunoassays, and chemiluminescence detection

Specific and sensitive analyses tailored to reveal and monitor the wide variety of chemical contaminants polluting all environment compartments, feed, and finally foods are strongly required following the increasing attention to the environment and health protection. Our research group has been involved in monitoring activities on agrochemical presence and distribution based on beehive monitoring stations distributed throughout the area. Honeybees were employed both as biosensors concerning the pesticides affecting their viability and as “contaminant collectors” concerning all environmental pollutants. We focused our research on the development of analytical procedures able to reveal and quantify pesticides in different samples but with a special attention to the complex honeybee matrix. Specific extraction and purification procedures have been developed and some are still under optimization. The analytes of interest were determined by gas or liquid chromatographic methods and by compound-specific or group-specific immunoassays in the ELISA format, the analytical performance of which was improved by introducing a luminescent end-point detection. The range of developed chemiluminescent immunoassays was extended to include the determination of completely different pollutants such as explosives, volatile organic compounds including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, and plastic components like Bisphenol A. An easier and portable format, a Lateral Flow Immuno Assay (LFIA) was added to the ELISA format to increase the application flexibility of these assays. The aspects of novelty, the specific characteristics, the analytical performance and possible future development of the different chromatographic and immunological methods are described and discussed.