ABSTRACT
Hans Gruber becomes concerned about the quality of the Worm-B-Gone production process after random batches from the fermentation vats are tested in laboratory bioassays. Results of bioassays with Worm-B-Gone and Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki by more than one independent laboratory show inconsistent results. Tobias suggests Hans contact Paula Maven to review the idiosyncrasies involved with bioassays of microbial products. Early in the development of products based on Bacillus thuringiensis, investigators recognized the lack of a relationship between spore count and biological activity of a preparation. Collection of data from side-by-side bioassays permits a continually updated database from which natural variation can be computed. The potency of each sample can be calculated directly from the relative toxicity value produced by PoloJR.5 The estimate of potency for the entire lot should be computed from the mean potency estimated from a minimum of four replicated bioassays.
