The purpose of this experiment is to estabilish the sensitive and specific ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) system for the detection of fish metallothionein (MT). Silver carp were injected with CA of 1-8mg/kg body wt. 4 times during 10 days. Silver carp was very tolerant species to CA. Cd induced MT in liver was seperated and purified by gel filtration chromatography and ion exchange chromatography and identified by spectrophotometry, native gel electrophoresis and western blot analysis. The rabbit antiserum was produced by immunizing rabbit with lyophilized MT, and the competitive ELISA system was estabilished for the detection of fish MT. In the present ELISA system, the detection limit was about 33 ng/ml. When this ELISA system was employed to determine the MT level in the supernatant sample of fish liver homogenate, the reaction curve showed a good parallel corelationship with the calibration curve over a certain dilution range. The results indicate that the competitive ELISA can be a useful tool for the detection of fish MT in the toxicological study and the evaluation of water pollution.