Development of a polymerase chain reaction system for the detection of dog and cat meat in meat mixtures and animal feed

The identification of species origin of meat represents a considerable problem for food and animal feed analysis. In the present study a PCR-mediated method for the detection of dog and cat meat was developed. For this the cytochrome b gene sequence of both species was analyzed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. The use of the restriction enzymes Alu I and Hae III yielded specific restriction profiles characteristic for each species. The meat of both species could additionally be differentiated with species-specific oligonucleotide primers based on specific parts of the cytochrome h gene sequences characteristic for dog and cat. The use of these oligonucleotide primers allowed a direct identification of dog and cat meat in meat mixtures even after heat treatment.