title: BSE control: detection of gelatine-derived peptides in animal feed by mass spectrometry.
abstract: The epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is thought to have resulted from feeding scrapie-infected sheep to cattle. This has led to a ban of feeding animals with "processed animal protein"(PAP). We report a novel approach for the mass spectrometric detection of PAP contamination in animal feedstuffs by detecting gelatine, a derivative of the major animal protein collagen. A method was developed to hydrolyse gelatine standards with hydrochloric acid, followed by detection of the derived hydrolytic peptides at m/z 828, 915, 957 and 1044 by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and liquid chromatography electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS-MS). The marker peptides can be detected at concentrations of 100 ng ml(-1) gelatine in water with MALDI. The procedure was adapted to obtain a suitable peptide map of gelatine extracted from spiked feed. The ratio of signal area of the gelatine-derived peptide at m/z 1044 to the internal standard at m/z 556 is shown to relate to the total amount of gelatine present in the sample.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Chemical and Bioanalytical Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK W20 0EX. raj.patel@rhul.ac.uk
authors.forename: Mireia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fernandez Ocaña
authors.forename: Hendrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Neubert
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Przyborowska
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bramley
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Halket
authors.forename: Raj
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Patel
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis*; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D016643:Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005780:Gelatin / Q000032:analysis*; D006868:Hydrolysis; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D005780:Gelatin