An immunogold assay for detection of chloramphenicol (CAP) residue in freshwater fish and milk was established using the colloidal gold with the average diameter of 20 nm for labeling the anti- chloramphenicol (CAP) polyclonal antibody. CAP was conjugated to (OVA) and then they were dispersed on a nitrocellulose (NC) membrane forming the test zone. Goat anti-rabbit IgG was chose as control zone. The method was simple and fast (10~15 minutes) with the sensitivity of 1 μg/L, which could be widely used to detect the CAP residues in freshwater fish and milk.