METHOD FOR ISOLATING VIRUSES FROM GROUND BEEF

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Abstract
SUMMARY: A method was developed to isolate viruses from ground beef. 5, l‐g samples were taken from each loaf of meat and each sample dispersed in 4 ml of Eagle's minimum essential medium. Elimination or reduction of bacterial and fungal contaminants was accomplished by adding antibiotics to the medium to give final concentrations per ml of 1,000 units of penicillin G, 1,000 μg of streptomycin, 50 μg of tetracycline hydrochloride and 5 μg amphotericin B. The meat slurry was adjusted to pH 8.5 with NaOH, shaken at room temperature (23°C) for 1 hr, pH readjusted to 8.0 and the slurry stored at 4°C for at least 16 hr. After this period, the slurry was reshaken for 1 hr at room temperature, filtered through a double layer of cheese cloth and the filtrate assayed for viruses by a plaque‐forming unit (pfu) procedure. By repeated experiments, this method recovered approximately 75% of input coxsackievirus B‐2. The method was used to examine market‐purchased ground beef for viruses. 1 to 195 viral pfu/5g were isolated from 3 of 12 loaves of meat. 1 loaf yielded poliovirus 1 and echovirus 6, 1 yielded poliovirus 2 and 1 yielded polioviruses 1 and 3.

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