title: European interlaboratory trial regarding the official microscopic method for the detection of the presence of animal constituents in feedstuffs.
abstract: The bovine spongiform encephalopathy epidemic is thought to have occurred as a consequence of feeding prion-infected material to cattle. To avoid the risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy diffusion, the European Commission (Directive 2003/126/EC) established an official method to detect the presence of animal-derived constituents in feedstuffs, using microscopic examination. This method allows easy identification of bone fragments among other animal constituents. The analysis is based on morphological conformation of the fragments and their characterization (mainly of the shape of lacunae) to discriminate among mammalian, poultry, and fish tissues. The aim of this study was to assess the performances of nine European laboratories through a ring trial of the official microscopic method, and to calculate accuracy and reproducibility of the method. In general the reproducibility of the microscopic method was very good (kappa overall = 0.83), with a high sensitivity for all laboratories. Concerning the analysis on the different animal-derived constituents, the results show values of sensitivity with large variability between fish and poultry or mammal. It was generally more difficult to discriminate between mammalian and poultry tissues than fish tissue.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d'Aosta, Via Bologna 148, 10154 Turin, Italy. controllo.alimenti@izsto.it
authors.forename: Jeanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ru
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ingravalle
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Choiseul
authors.forename: Jan Sten
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Jørgensen
authors.forename: Maria B Peña
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Millan
authors.forename: Jeroen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vancutsem
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wernitznig
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marchis
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Decastelli
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis*; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000592:standards*; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D016643:Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins