USDA Approves Neogen's NeoSEEK STEC System

NeoSEEK pathogenic detection method for STECs issued a letter of no objection.

Published September 13, 2012

LANSING, Mich. - The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued a letter of no objection for the use of Neogen's NeoSEEK pathogen detection DNA detection method for Shiga toxin-producing strains of E. coli (STECs), Neogen announced.

The letter of no objection allows the use of 24-hour NeoSEEK STEC system as a confirmatory method for six STEC serogroups (O26, O45, O103, O111, O121 and O145) and says the NeoSEEK system is comparable to the reference method, FSIS MLG 5B.02, which can take three or more days to achieve a conformatory result. This allows companies to use the NeoSEEK system to comply with the USDA's recently implemented regulation that requires the testing of raw beef trim for six new STEC serogroups, in addition to the previously regulated STEC, E. coli O157:H7.

 

“The letter from the USDA provides further assurance to our customers that our NeoSEEK system performs as designed,” said James Herbert, Neogen’s chairman and CEO. “As worldwide food regulation has evolved to address newly identified threats to our global food supply, such as STECs, Neogen’s test systems have evolved to rapidly and accurately detect those threats. NeoSEEK provides the DNA-definitive test the food industry needs that has been proven to be comparable to the older reference method, yet provides much quicker results.”
 
Neogen received the USDA’s letter of no objection as a result of extensive studies validating the effectiveness of the NeoSEEK system. The NeoSEEK technology uses mass spectrometry-based multiplexing to determine the genetic composition of bacteria in a food sample, and then compares those results with the known genetic makeup of the target E. coli strains to identify and differentiate the target strains. NeoSEEK provides confirmatory results directly from the enrichment broth, eliminating the need for single colony isolation and allowing for accuracy while delivering confirmatory results more rapidly, according to the manufacturer.
 
NeoSEEK assays a high number of independent genetic markers to detect and identify pathogens, which provides actionable results much sooner than conventional cultural methods, Neogen said.
 
For more information visit Neogen.com.

 

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