Furazolidone, a nitrofuran antibiotic, is banned from use in food animal production within the European Union. Increasingly, compliance with this ban is monitored by use of analytical methods to detect a stable tissue-bound metabolite, 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone (AOZ). Widespread use of furazolidone in poultry and prawns imported into Europe highlighted the urgent need for development of nitrofuran immunoassay screening tests. The first enzyme-linked immunoabsorbant assay for detection of AOZ residues in prawns (shrimps) is now described. Prawn samples were derivatized with o-nitrobenzaldehyde, extracted into ethyl acetate, washed with hexane and applied to a competitive enzyme immunoassay based on a rabbit polyclonal antiserum. Assay limit of detection (LOD) (mean + 3 s) calculated from the analysis of 20 known negative cold and warm water prawn samples was 0.1 microg kg(-1). Intra- and interassay relative standard deviations were determined as 18.8 and 38.2%, respectively, using a negative prawn fortified at 0.7 microg kg(-1). The detection capability (CCbeta), defined as the concentration of AOZ at which 20 different fortified samples yielded results above the LOD, was achieved at fortification between 0.4 and 0.7 microg kg(-1). Incurred prawn samples (n = 8) confirmed by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry detection to contain AOZ concentrations between 0.4 and 12.7 microg kg(-1) were all screened positive by this enzyme-linked immunoabsorbant assay. Further data are presented and discussed with regard to calculating assay LOD based on accepting a 5% false-positive rate with representative negative prawn samples. Such an acceptance improves the sensitivity of an ELISA and in this case permitted an LOD of 0.05 microg kg(-1) and a CCbeta of below 0.4 microg kg(-1).