Biotechnologie, Agronomie, Société et Environnement (Jan 2009)
Methods of detection, species identification and quantification of processed animal proteins in feedingstuffs
Abstract
The ban of processed animal proteins (PAPs) in feed for farmed animals led to a significant reduction of the number of bovine spongiform encephalopathy cases. Presently, optical microscopy remains the only reference method for the detection of PAPs to be applied for official control as required by Commission Directive 2003/126/EC. The legislation also foresees that other methods may be applied in addition to classical microscopy, if – for instance – they provide more information about the origin of the animal constituents. Therefore, alternative and complementary techniques were developed as such or in combination. The most promising ones seem to be PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), near infrared microscopy and imaging, as well as immunology. Within the framework of a PAP ban regardless of its species origin (total feed ban), most of the studies were mainly focused on the ability of the techniques to detect the presence of PAPs at 0.1% (mass percentage of constituents of animal origin in feed) as indicated as limit of detection in the official method protocol. A possible modification of the legislation requires that the techniques are also able to determine their species origin and to quantify them. The present paper gives a state of the art of the different methods.
