Immunoassay of cooked wild rat meat by ELISA with a highly specific antibody targeting rat heat-resistant proteins

The 2019 new coronavirus epidemic potentially induced by wild animals has drawn tremendous attention. Wild animal meat contamination and adulteration have become increasingly serious, particularly for highly cooked wild animal meats that are difficult to be detected. In this study, a highly specific polyclonal antibody targeting the cooked rat proteins was developed. The corresponding sandwich ELISA (swELISA) was developed and found highly sensitive and specific for cooked rat meat, while there are no cross-reactions to the cooked chicken, pork and beef meats. The limit of detection (LOD) is determined to be as low as 0.01 ug/L based OD values. The coefficient variation (CV) is 5% and 8% for intra and inter assays, respectively. The recovery efficiencies are between 90% and 110%. The sandwich ELISA can detect both raw and cooked rat meat and is also suitable for Swab test of rat contamination. The results indicated a highly reliable and robust ELISA-based assay for cooked rat meat identification and contamination.