The sensitivity of commercial kits in detecting the genes of pathogenic bacteria in venison

The expansion of the wild deer population is a major problem for the Japanese farm and forestry industries because their damage to farm products and vegetation results in huge economic loss. To promote game meat consumption, hygiene inspections should be performed to detect main bacterial pathogens before products are shipped. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the ability of commercial test kits to genetically detect EHEC, Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes in venison. Our results demonstrated that the kits for three pathogens could be useful for venison as well as other domestic meat products. Our comparative study showed that the LAMP kits were more sensitive than the RT-qPCR kits in the detection of all of these pathogens.