Considering the importance of the scandal, Tonio Borg, European Commissioner for health and consumer, has announced a campaign of 2250 DNA tests on all products containing beef within the Member States. The test that has been selected by the European Commission and which is recommended to all European laboratories in charge of this campaign of tests is a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test that was developed by the EURL-AP.
It is in the context of the EURL-AP main activity for the identification of the animal protein that this equine test had been developed by the team of the laboratory of molecular biology at the Walloon Agricultural Research Center (CRA-W). Premonition? Suspicion? Nothing, it's the simple benefit of a technological watch and of the development of alternative methods to ensure the origin of the species in animal feed. The result of this proactivity: a test specific for horses which could be put at the disposal of the control laboratories of the agri-food sector and official control authorities in less than two days!
More information on Legal Sources and SOPs webpage
Contacts: Gilbert Berben, Pascal Veys
