IMMUNOLOGICAL MARKING OF ANIMALS AND FOOD OF ANIMAL ORIGIN AS ALTERNATIVE IDENTIFICATION OF THE ORIGIN

Following the BSE epidemic in the United Kingdom public demands have b een raised for increased safety of food products of animal origin. Foo d safety is influenced fundamentally by the origin and health of the s ource animal and the use of good manufacturing practices. In order to improve tracing of the proveniance of source animals we propose in thi s article a biological identification system ('immunological ear tag') which makes use of the natural immune system of mammals. In this syst em individal animals or cohorts are marked by vaccination with synthet ic peptide vaccines. Induced peptide specific antibodies can be detect ed in blood, milk and meat products by use of conventional enzyme-link ed immunosorband assays or similar detection systems. Thus, the detect ion of anti-peptide antibodies in vaccinated animals can serve as a hi ghly specific biomarker.