Survey of Ground Beef for The Detection ofMycobacterium avium paratuberculosis

Abstract

Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP) is thought to be associated with Crohn's disease in humans. Since Johne's disease affects dairy and beef cattle, meat may be a possible route of transmission of MAP to humans. In this study, we compared a rapid multiplex real time PCR assay and conventional culture to detect MAP in ground beef. The real time PCR assay amplifies both an internal sequence of the IS900 gene and an internal control targeting the ruminant-specific mt-cyt-b gene, in order to control for any false negative results. The sensitivity of this multiplex real time PCR assay on ground beef is 10(1) CFU/g and the sensitivity of conventional culture at 10(3) CFU/g. Furthermore, we conducted a survey of 200 retail ground beef samples using this system and did not detect the presence of MAP.

Mycobacterium avium ssp . paratuberculosis detection in animals, food, water and other sources or vehicles of human exposure: A scoping review of the existing evidence

“…Challenge trial 8 (Jaravata et al, 2007) , Denmark (0.4%) (Okura et al, 2011) : measure of heterogeneity Footnote: The prevalence of M. paratuberculosis in foods was investigated in 62 studies by culture, PCR, ELISA or hybridization to identify M. paratuberculosis in samples (milk, cheese, other dairy, meat, infant formula and breast milk). 56/62 studies provided useable data and are included in the summaries and meta-analyses presented in this table.…”

Survey on the presence of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in ground beef from an industrial meat plant

“…Despite this issue, few surveys have been conducted to examine retail meat products for the occurrence of MAP. A first study, conducted on 200 samples of ground beef, failed to detect MAP (Jaravata et al, 2007), while two recent surveys, both conducted in the Czech Republic, found some qPCR positive samples in bovine meat and porcine-bovine mixed products (Klanicova et al, 2011;Lorencova et al, 2014), but were unable to isolate viable MAP cells.…”

Inactivation of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis during Cooking of Hamburger Patties

“…In addition, muscle trims often used for the production of ground beef were found to be negative for the presence of MAP, based on samples of 2 g (2). In summary, it can be expected that MAP will be present in ground beef at quite low numbers, which is supported by the survey by Jaravata et al (9), who tested 200 samples of ground beef that were negative by culture and multiplex real-time PCR. The reduction of MAP achieved with the cooking experiments presented here should therefore result in a " safe" product, providing that the patties are well done.…”