Detection of Invasive Mussels Using FlowCAM^® XPL

The FlowCAM can be equipped with a cross-polarized illumination option (patent pending) which can be used to detect larval-stage invasive mussel species such as Zebra and Quagga mussels (see optical diagram above).Since the skeletons of these organisms are calcareous, they will exhibit birefringence under cross-polarized light as shown in the image below.

Zebra Mussel Veligers imaged by the FlowCAM XPL

Using the FlowCAM with cross-polarization to detect invasive species of mussels is extremely simple, saves enormous amounts of time and eliminates the human error that may be introduced through manual microscopy. Because this technique detects the larval stage (veligers) of the species, it provides for significantly earlier detection of these invasive species. Additionally, since the FlowCAM images a moving stream of sample, it has the capability to process much larger quantities of sample in a very short time, enabling detection of very sparse populations.