Novel Molecular Method for Detection of Bovine-Specific Central Nervous System Tissues as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Risk Material in Meat and Meat Products

The emergence of a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease during the bovine spongiform encephalopathy epidemic has focused attention on the use of tissues from the central nervous system (CNS) in food. For efficient consumer protection, European legislation prohibits several bovine tissues, encompassing mainly the central nervous system, from the food chain. A quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was designed to identify bovine spongiform encephalopathy risk material in meat and meat products. This was based on an mRNA assay that used bovine, ovine, and caprine glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) encoding gene sequences as a marker. The real-time RT-PCR assay allowed the detection of bovine, ovine, or caprine CNS tissues in meat and meat products. Bovine brain at a concentration of 0.01% yielded a positive PCR reaction. The real-time RT-PCR assay included a housekeeping gene as an endogenous control. The detection was not affected by heat treatment of the meat products. The quantitative real-time RT-PCR detection of GFAP mRNA appeared to be useful as a routine diagnostic test for the detection of illegal use of CNS tissues in meat and meat products. The stability of the specific region of GFAP mRNA also allows the detection of CNS tissues after meat processing steps. The use of organ- and species-specific subunits of mRNA might be a promising approach for the detection of other banned tissues.