July 23, 2007

US researchers develops test kit for IBDV in poultry

A test for the very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV) which affects poultry flocks has been developed by the Ohio State University's Center for Diagnostic Assays (CDA).

IBDV expert Daral Jackwood, with the University's Food Animal Health Research Program (FAHRP) on the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) developed a real-time assay that could detect nucleotide sequences unique to vvIBDV strains.

This new assay is capable of differentiating between vvIBDV strains from non-vvIBDV classic and variant strains.

Currently, there are no validated rapid assay for the detection of all known vvIBDV strains in the market.

The discovery resulted in direct requests from veterinarians and scientists at USDA's Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS ).

APHIS helped OARDC secure part of the funding for this work from the US Poultry & Egg Association.

Ohio State is currently hoping to make deals with companies to produce and market the assay kit worldwide.

IBDV is highly infectious and very resistant to inactivation, In recent years, very virulent strains of IBDV (vvIBDV), causing severe mortality in chicken, have emerged in Europe, Latin America, South-east Asia, Africa and the Middle East, according to Wikipedia. Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) is a highly contagious disease of young chickens characterized by immunosuppression and mortality generally at 3 to 6 weeks of age. The average mortalities were about 10 percent in broiler flocks.