Malaysian scientists develop sarcocystis spp PCR kit

Don’t mean to alarm you, but there could be something hiding in your hamburger. Up to 56% of hamburgers and 20% of hot dogs and sausages contain sarcocystis spp - intracellular protozoan parasites that are acquired by consuming undercooked beef, lamb and goat that contains cysts.

In humans, sarcocystis spp can cause acute myositis, diarrhoea and fever. Livestock suffer acute debilitating infections, resulting in abortion and death or chronic infections with failure to grow or thrive.

Researchers from Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia have developed a PCR kit that provides a sensitive and specific means of screening, detecting and identifying the parasite. Currently, there are no commercially available PCR detection kits for sarcocystis.

The Universiti Teknologi MARA PCR kit was created with thermo-stabilised PCR reactions. Premixes consist of a buffered salt solution with dNTPs, MgCl and Taq polymerase enzyme. The user simply adds templates, primers and PCR-grade distilled water and amplifies based on the given conditions.

The kit amplifies genes simultaneously and requires no cold chain. It has a built-in loading dye that facilitates the loading of PCR products directly onto the agarose gel without the addition of a sample loading buffer. Easy-to-follow steps minimise handling and pipetting, making it useful for field works.

The invention received the Gold award at the Invention, Innovation and Design Exposition 2014, which was organised by the Universiti Teknologi MARA.