Detection of animal by-products in bone ashes by near infrared spectroscopy coupled with microscopy:

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is a mortal bovine disease. Epidemiologic studies have linked the disease to animal feed contaminated with infected protein. In Argentina, the feeding of bovines with components of animal origin is banned, except for fishmeal and bone ash. Nowadays, optical microscopy is used to analyze animal feed and its components. In this method, technical analytical expertise is very important. This is why the development of a methodology that produces results which can be rapidly and automatically compared is urgently needed. The specific infrared microscopy method presented in this work delivers qualitative results in terms of the presence or absence of animal particles by applying specific decision rules. The object of this work was to assess the methodology of near infrared microscopy for the qualitative determination of the presence of particles of animal origin in matrices of bone ash. The spectra were collected by an image microscope coupled to a Fourier transform infrared spec...