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Rapid molecular detection of microbial pathogens: breakthroughs and challenges

  • Conference paper
Viral Zoonoses and Food of Animal Origin

Summary

Microbiological contamination of foods and drinking water is a global problem, and a significant amount of expense is being incurred as a result of such contamination. The microorganisms associated with almost half of all disease outbreaks still go unidentified, primarily as a result of inadequate monitoring and surveillance. Though significant improvements have been made in refining molecular methods for detecting infectious agents, a majority of these methods are being employed only on clinical samples where pathogen densities are much higher than those found in environmental and food samples. Comparative evaluations of the various protocols in terms of cost, sensitivity, specificity, speed, and reproducibility need to be undertaken so that the true applicability of these methods can determined. In the future, molecular methods, especially gene amplifications and in situ hybridizations, will find increasing applications in the differentiation of viable and non-viable organisms, in predicting antimicrobial resistance, and in the identification and characterization of unculturable microorganisms. Though molecular detection methods will not totally replace conventional methods, they will significantly enhance our ability to detect microbial pathogens rapidly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Science Program, Texas A&M University Research Center, 1380 A&M Circle, El Paso, TX, 79927, USA

    Dr S. D. Pillai

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  1. Dr S. D. Pillai
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Medical Microbiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Federal Republic of Germany

    Oskar-Rüger Kaaden , Claus-Peter Czerny  & Werner Eichhorn ,  & 

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Wien

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Pillai, S.D. (1997). Rapid molecular detection of microbial pathogens: breakthroughs and challenges. In: Kaaden, OR., Czerny, CP., Eichhorn, W. (eds) Viral Zoonoses and Food of Animal Origin. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-6534-8_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-6534-8_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-211-83014-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-6534-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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