NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) - Researchers at a Barcelona university have used Applied Biosystems’ genotyping and sequencing systems to develop a test that can identify the breed and the origin of the animal that meat came from, the university and the company jointly announced today.
The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona’s Department of Food Sciences used the ABI SNPlex Genotyping System and two 3730 DNA Analyzers to develop a panel of 46 SNPs that can be used to identify individual animals, allowing meat to be traceable.
The university and the company said meat traceability is necessary to ensure consumer safety, particularly in cases of infectious disease outbreaks or accidental feed contamination.
The study validated the SNPs for identifying pigs from five different purebred lines from samples taken from hundreds of different pigs. The test, and similar ones for other farm animals, also could be used by breeders and farmers to identify markers for desirable genetic traits, according to the research team.
The findings of the partners’ study appears in the December issue of the journal Animal Genetics.