Development of a DNA-based assay for species identification in meat and bone meal

Restrictions on the use of meat and bone meal (MBM) as a feed ingredient were introduced by the European Commission as a result of the BSE crisis. This paper describes the development of species specific PCR assays to detect bovine, ovine, porcine and poultry species content in MBM. A simple lysis based extraction procedure and a commercial DNA extraction kit were evaluated using simulated samples of rendered material for performance in terms of yielding DNA that is amenable to PCR amplification. From a small cohort of commercially produced samples (n = 7) the application of species specific PCR assays was used to determine the species content of these samples returning an accuracy of 72.5 and 60% for the two selected extraction procedures. Using the simple lysis method, with single species rendered material, a inclusion rate of 0.3% for the bovine and ovine primers and 1% for the porcine primers in MBM containing another reference species was detectable. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.