Polyclonal antibody to ovomucoid determination in gamma irradiated laying eggs
M.N.C. Harder
a
,
*
, V. Arthur
a
, S.G. Canniatti-Brazaca
b
, V.J.M. Savino
b
, A.A.D. Coelho
b
, L.C.A.S. Silva
a
,
K.M.R. Duarte
c
, B.S. Rodriguez
b
a
Radiobiology and Environment Department, Center of Nuclear Energy in Agriculture eCENA/USP, Av. Centenário, 303 13416-000 Piracicaba, SP, Brazil
b
College of Agriculture “Luiz de Queiroz”eESALQ/USP, Av. Pádua Dias,11 13418-900 Piracicaba, SP, Brazil
c
Zootecnia Institute, R. Heitor Penteado, 56 13460-000 Nova Odessa, SP, Brazil
article info
Article history:
Received 30 May 2010
Received in revised form
27 June 2011
Accepted 30 June 2011
Keywords:
Allergenic food proteins
ELISA
Co
60
Food allergy
Laying eggs
Gamma rays
abstract
To determine allergenic foods, one of the most used tests is the immunoassays such as ELISA (enzyme-
linked immunosorbent assay). The aim of this study was to determine the polyclonal antibody efficiency,
produced in laboratory, to identify the presence the ovomucoid antigen in treated eggs by gamma
irradiation for its inactivation. To evaluate the treatments, polyclonal antibody was produced. It was
used, in nature, commercial laying eggs. Samples were submitted to the gamma radiation coming from
a source of Co
60
, under a dose rate of 19.4 and 31.8 Gy/h, in the doses: 0 (control); 10 kGy; 20 kGy and
30 kGy, in all rates. By the ELISA’s test we can find the egg allergen ovomucoid and the radiation
treatment do not showed considerable changes. So we can conclude that the antibody produced is
capable of identify the ovomucoid allergenic protein and the gamma irradiation in such rates does not
shows changes in that protein.
Ó2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Chicken meat and eggs are considered by nutritional profes-
sionals as a great valuable food, highly nutritious for any kind of
people (child and adults at any kind of nutritional need). Eggs are
considered a complete food (Englert, 1998; Harder et al., 2007). A
great concern on the Food industry, especially with raweggs, is the
presences of pathogenic bacteria, mainly Salmonella ssp, but the
elimination of such pathogens disables the raw use of the eggs,
once always uses heat.
The egg is highly recommended for all people and it would be
desirable to replace the portion of meat (protein) (Harder et al.,
2008, 2010), up to three times a week (if there are exceptions),
for at least two eggs a day, either fried, hot or as omelet, pasta,
cakes, mayonnaise, ice cream, or other forms.
Due to the world need for food and food security, together to the
problems of storing and inadequate processing, there was an
increasing search for new methodologies to preserve food. Irradi-
ation is considered a good method for storage quality holding, used
for the in natura as the processed food (Villavicencio, 1998).
Besides the presence of pathogens, eggs are a rich source for
allergenic proteins. The gamma radiation has being used as
a technique to minimize its problems.
When adverse reactions to food are caused by immunological
mechanisms are said food allergies, whereas when caused by toxic,
pharmacological, metabolic and/or idiosyncratic, the chemicals are
said food intolerances (Parker et al., 1993; Moreira, 2006).
Allergies are disorders that affect about 20e30% of the human
population in developed countries, ranking among the most
common chronic diseases (Matysiak-Budnick and Heyman, 2002;
Moreira, 2006).
The main foods that have been cited as causes of food allergies
are: milk, eggs, peanuts, nuts, shrimp, fish and soy (Moreira, 2006).
In addition to avidin, the trypsin inhibitor is also an anti-
nutritional factor present in the egg. The avidin present in
albumin, binds the vitamin biotin, forming the avidin-biotin, which
is not absorbed by the intestine, causing avitaminosis. When
denatured by heat, it does not bind biotin (Lehninger, 1985; Harder,
2005). Kratzer et al. (1988), egg powder testing and found that,
when the birds not supplemented with biotin, there were signs of
deficiency of this vitamin with a mortality of 20% and that supple-
mentation with 500
m
g/kg was enough to meet the needs of birds.
The authors concluded that a bad process, not completely inactive
avidin, thus revealing the importance also of care in processing the
ingredients in order to obtain quality products.
*Corresponding author. Tel.: þ55 19 34267559; fax: þ55 19 34267559.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Progress in Nuclear Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pnucene
0149-1970/$ esee front matter Ó2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.pnucene.2011.06.016
Progress in Nuclear Energy 53 (2011) 1148e115 0
