Kits detect food-borne pathogens

A research team from the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños has developed easy-to-use kits to detect disease-causing organisms in food.

The kits were developed by the team of Dr. Susana Mercado and Teresita Ramirez to detect Escherichia coli (E.coli) and salmonella, food-borne pathogens that cause diseases like typhoid fever and other infections of the intestines leading to diarrhea.

The diagnostic kits were developed using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method used in increasing the number of copies of certain regions of a DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) unique to an organism, in order to produce enough DNA detectable for testing. DNA is passed on from one generation to another.

"The PCR-based method is a quicker and more reliable way of determining the presence of salmonella," Ramirez said.

She said it only takes 26 to 28 hours to complete the test as compared with the traditional test which usually takes five to seven days, including confirmatory analysis.

Aside from the shorter wait for results, the PCR-based method is more sensitive compared with other methods.

Based on a test conducted between PCR and the traditional method, Ramirez said both were able to detect salmonella in artificially infected animal samples. However, the PCR-based method was able to detect strains of salmonella which the other method failed to detect in six naturally contaminated samples.