Fast diagnosis possible

Press, 13 February 1981, Page 4

Fast diagnosis possible

From

KEN COATES

London

in

If samples taken from the pigs suspected of having foot-and-mouth disease are suitable for quick testing, New Zealand officials will know within a few hours, whether the results are positive. The deputy director of the Animal Virus Research Institute at Pirbright, Surrey, Dr G. N. Mouat, said failing that, longer tests could produce a result in from 24 to 48 hours. The samples are due at Heathrow Airport at 12.30 a.m. tomorrow (New Zealand time) and will be taken to the institute’s laboratories where they will be tested by staff working overtime during the week-end.

The institute, run by the Agriculture Research Council, is the world-recognised centre for identifying this type of disease. Dr George Adlam, director of the Animal Health Division of the Ministry of Agriculture in New Zealand, will take charge of handling the results of the test. He is at present attending a conference in Paris and will fly to London tomorrow. Dr Mouat said that the samples would first be subjected to a complement fixation test, to identify virus antigens in tissue samples by serology. If the samples were good enough and there was enough virus material scientists could get an answer within hours. “Very often, however, samples from pigs are not

very good in this respect and we have to amplify any infectious virus remaining in the material,” said Dr Mouat “We do this by putting sample material into tissue cultures. As the virus multiplies, this provides us with material for the serological tests.”

“The all-important thing is how long the disease has persisted before the samples are taken because once blisters rupture they rapidly lose the infectious virus. They may be just pieces of skin and not very satisfactory. “But if the samples are fresh and taken early in the disease, it makes our job very much easier with quick results. We could have an answer within a matter of hours.”