Abstract: The invention relates to a method for the determination of vitellogenin as a biomarker or end point for an exogenous oestrogenic effect on fish. The problem addressed by the invention is the creation of a non-destructive method in which the laboratory animals do not have to be killed. The method also should not necessitate any additional use of laboratory animals for carrying out tests on oestrogens, anti-oestrogens, and endocrine disruptors. This problem is solved by a method for the determination of vitellogenin as biomarker for an exogenous oestrogenic effect on fish comprising the method steps of taking a skin mucus sample from a fish by swabbing, transferring the skin mucus sample to a reaction vessel, homogenising the skin mucus sample, and taking an aliquot of the skin mucus sample for vitellogenin determination by means of an ELISA method of detection.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for preparing protein-specific antibodies, to protein-specific antibodies which can be obtained thereby, namely polyclonal, crossreactive antisera possessing specificity for haptoglobin derived from at least two productive animal and domestic animal species, and to their use for determining haptoglobin in productive animal and domestic animal samples. The invention furthermore relates to corresponding immunization cocktails, to peptides which can be used for preparing the antisera, and to immunoassay sets which are based on the antisera. Both protein and protein fragments are used for the immunization.