Robotics Help Test for Animal Diseases

EDMONTON - Feb 11/04 - SNS -- Robotics and advanced computer systems are being used in the battle to quickly detect transmissible spongiform encephalopathie.

Through a special permit from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Alberta is now able use the internationally recognized Bio-Rad kit from France to detect Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in elk and deer and scrapie in sheep.

"Due to the increased automation associated with these new rapid-test kits we will be able to cut our turn-around time in half once the samples arrive at the lab," says Dr. Gerald Ollis, chief veterinarian, Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Edmonton. "The actual test itself only takes about 48 hours which is a tremendous improvement over previous procedures."

Dr. Ollis says that what is even more important than the improvement in speed is the increase in output. "The Bio-Rad procedure is more automated than previous tests meaning we can triple our output. We'll be able to run about 1,000 tests a week the way we're set up right now. With further automation we'll be able to do even more."

The subscriber version of the article is available by Clicking here