March 31, 2008

Scientists develop chip to detect multiple animal diseases
 

Farmers may soon be using one simple screening chip to quickly  detect various livestock diseases such as bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease.

The chip, developed by scientists from the Institute for Animal Health, would be presented March 31, 2008 at the Society for General Microbiology's 162nd meeting.

Dr Paul Britton of the Institute for Animal Health in Compton, near Newbury, Berkshire highlighted the need for a quick response mechanism for detecting animal diseases such as those used in detecting SARs.

The scientists have developed a microarray in a chip which contains specific small regions of virus genes that react with any viruses in the samples being tested, showing up as coloured spots on glass slides. The method can also be used to see if a sample contains two or more viruses.

Dr Paul Britton said a system that can be used by almost anyone, and that can quickly and accurately be used to identify the particular virus early on would have much wider applications."

The new microarray can detect up to 300 different viruses that infect humans and animals including farm livestock, birds, fish and insects, containing over 2,800 stretches of genes from over 300 viruses from 36 different virus families. The chip has already been successfully used to detect a coronavirus, similar to SARS, called infectious bronchitis virus, which infects chickens and also foot-and-mouth disease virus.

"The great advantage of this microarray-based diagnosis is that you don't even have to know which virus you are looking for. It can be used in the early stages of a disease outbreak to quickly identify the threat to people or animals, and can be used on samples either from clinics or isolated from the environment", said Dr Paul Britton. "

Britton said the team hopes to make some chips available soon to European members of the Epizone project, a virtual institute that aims to improve research and control epizootic diseases.