Government Supports Study for Rapid, Cost Effective Detection of Salmonella in Meat Products

Quezon City — A study conducted in the University of the Philippines for fast and cost-effective methods of detecting Salmonella in raw meat and meat products seeks to ensure safer meat and meat products for consumers and to improve further the growth of the agricultural and livestock industry in the country.

According to the DA Biotech Program, the study aims to create a protocol for the molecular detection of Salmonella to allow rapid detection of the organism and its sources to further characterize the organism, control outbreaks and identify exactly what the mechanisms of transmission are.

The DA Biotech Program added, the researchers said this is all made possible with a biotechnological method called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), which has been found to be highly sensitive, very specific, fast and reproducible.

Dr. Windell Rivera, Professor of Microbiology at the Institute of Biology at the University of the Philippines Diliman is the research project leader.

The study further aims to find the prevalence of Salmonella species in slaughtered swine and other livestock and poultry—both in raw meat and meat products—in wet markets in Metro Manila.

Studies have revealed that swine, poultry and cattle are very common carriers of this virulent microbe (q certain group of bacteria causes approximately 90% of all food-borne illnesses in the world. Within the group, Salmonella is one of the most frequently reported and recognized cause of gastroenteritis and enteric fever, collectively known as food poisoning).

Hog livestock is the largest meat and livestock industry in the Philippines, having over two million metric tons of production in 2014 as recorded by the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The International Standardization Organization subsequently created a method to detect Salmonella by first enriching the sample in liquid culture to make it more adequate for the tests, but this takes five days to complete. (DA)