A new, simple, rapid microbial assay was put forward for the detection of chloramphenicol (CAP) residues in Turbot muscles using luminescent bacteria DB (Photobacterium phosphoreum) as test organism. By the luminescence inhibition of DB, the concentrations of CAP were determined. CAP spiked in Turbot muscle tissues ranging from 0.5 to 100μg/kg was extracted using ethyl acetate and hexane. The method had a good recovery of 93.69% with a minimum detection limit of 0.65μg/kg. It can be performed within 30min following simple extraction. The method therefore proved to be advantageous over chromatographic procedures as it was inexpensive, quite sensitive and can be adopted for rapid screening of CAP in Turbot tissues.