DETECTION OF VIRAL-DNA IN EXPERIMENTALLY CONTAMINATED SAUSAGE EMULSION USING THE POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION

Foods of animal origin may be contaminated by human pathogenic viruses originating from the gastrointestinal tract. While foodborne transmis sion of gastroenteric RNA viruses is well documented, there is no info rmation available concerning the potential importance of food contamin ations with DNA viruses. This may be due to the difficult detection of several of these viruses using standard cell culture methods. In this report, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was applied to detect vir us DNA in experimentally contaminated food of animal origin. As a mode l system sausage emulsion was used which was contaminated with defined amounts of bovine herpes virus 1 (BHV-1) before DNA isolation. BHV-1 DNA could be detected with high sensitivity. However, it was necessary to include two additional purification steps in order to remove subst ances that inhibited the PCR. From these results we conclude that befo re PCR can be used for multiple sample processing of complex foods, re liable methods for removal of inhibitory substances will have to be de veloped.