Publication Abstract

How many fish are there in an adequate sample?

How many fish are there in an adequate sample?

S. NicGabhainn, L. Pursell, F. McCormack, G. Barker, D.J. Alderman and P. Smith

The concentrations of oxytetracycline dihydrate and amoxycillin present in fish muscle following their administration by oral intubation were determined by plate diffusion bioassay. Analysis of these data revealed that fish to fish variation was the most significant source of variation and therefore the sample size was a critical experimental design parameter. The dependence of the sensitivity of the assay in determining a value of the population mean on sample size was determined by calculation of the 95% confidence limits. This analysis demonstrated that the use of sample sizes of less than 10 resulted in very low sensitivity but that increasing the sample size over 15 resulted in little increase in sensitivity.

Reference:

S. NicGabhainn, L. Pursell, F. McCormack, G. Barker, D.J. Alderman and P. Smith, 1996. How many fish are there in an adequate sample? pp755-759 In: Residues of veterinary drugs in food. (Haagsma, N. and Rviter, A (eds.)) Proceedings of EuroResidue III Conference, Veldhoven, Netherlands, 6-8 May 1996. WPFC, Federation of European Chemical Societies.

S. NicGabhainn, L. Pursell, F. McCormack, G. Barker*, D.J. Alderman* and P. Smith

pp755-759 In: Residues of veterinary drugs in food. (Haagsma, N. and Rviter, A (eds.)) Proceedings of EuroResidue III Conference, Veldhoven, Netherlands, 6-8 May 1996. WPFC, Federation of European Chemical Societies.