Monoclonal antibody sandwich ELISA for the potential detection of chicken meat in mixtures of raw beef and pork.

A sandwich ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) has been developed successfully for the detection of defined amounts of chicken meat (1-100%) in beef and pork meat mixtures. The assay uses a monoclonal antibody (BC9) specific to a chicken muscle soluble protein to capture this protein from complex meat mixtures. Further immunorecognition of the captured protein was attained with rabbit polyclonal antibodies against chicken muscle proteins (anti-CHSP). A commercial goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulin conjugated to peroxidase was used to detect the anti-CHSP antibodies bound to the chicken protein. Subsequent enzymic conversion of substrate gave clear optical density differences when assaying mixtures of beef and pork meats containing variable amounts of chicken meat.