<p>Bacillus anthracis is one of the most feared agents of biological warfare and causes the</p><p>deadly disease called anthrax. SVA (statens veterinärmedicinska anstalt) is working on a</p><p>project together with SLV (statens livsmedelsverk) where the target is to find rapid and</p><p>effective detection methods for Bacillus anthracis in animal feed and food samples. Bacillus</p><p>subtilis, which is harmless, was used in this study as a model organism to Bacillus anthracis.</p><p>A known concentration of vegetative Bacillus subtilis was spiked in animal feed and food</p><p>samples. The genomic work flow was based on automated DNA isolation and real time PCR.</p><p>The aim of the study was to screen for inhibitory components in the animal feed and food</p><p>samples using two different DNA isolation robots; Magnatrix 8000 and Biorobot EZ1. The</p><p>results showed that DNA of high quality was extracted from the samples with both robots.</p><p>However, the CT-value generated by the real time PCR showed considerable variation</p><p>depending on the sample matrix. Some samples, for instance egg and liver, were problematic</p><p>and gave low concentrations and high CT-values probably due to inhibitory components in the</p><p>samples. Further studies will be needed to solve these problems and optimize the methods that</p><p>were used in this study.</p>

Bacillus anthracis is one of the most feared agents of biological warfare and causes the deadly disease called anthrax. SVA (statens veterinärmedicinska anstalt) is working on a project together with SLV (statens livsmedelsverk) where the target is to find rapid and effective detection methods for Bacillus anthracis in animal feed and food samples. Bacillus subtilis, which is harmless, was used in this study as a model organism to Bacillus anthracis. A known concentration of vegetative Bacillus subtilis was spiked in animal feed and food samples. The genomic work flow was based on automated DNA isolation and real time PCR. The aim of the study was to screen for inhibitory components in the animal feed and food samples using two different DNA isolation robots; Magnatrix 8000 and Biorobot EZ1. The results showed that DNA of high quality was extracted from the samples with both robots. However, the CT-value generated by the real time PCR showed considerable variation depending on the sample matrix. Some samples, for instance egg and liver, were problematic and gave low concentrations and high CT-values probably due to inhibitory components in the samples. Further studies will be needed to solve these problems and optimize the methods that were used in this study.