Species Specific Detection of Central Nervous Tissue or Other TSE Risk Material in Meat Products

To quantify, assess and control PrPsc exposition risk, suitable and reliable methods for detection of high risk material in foodstuff are crucial. A lack of specivity in recently published test systems for CNS material (Locker et al., 1999) is apparent: they are not species specific. All "classical" morphological methods (histological examination with staining, immunohistochemistry) are failing in this field, too. This is due to destruction, alteration and/or masking of the central nervous tissue structures during the production processes of meat products.
The aim of this project is to enable a high level of consumer protection by developing a species specific test system based on markers found specifically in risk material (e.g. central nervous tissue).<p>
To reach this goal, two ways are promising:<ol>
<li> Development of an antibody based test system for detection of species specific differences in amino acid sequence of proteins.
<li> A system based on detection of mRNA encoding such proteins.</ol>