I’m fed up with talking about the weather, but I can console myself with the fact we have grabbed every opportunity so far and progress is not too bad.Faster avian flu detection
SCIENTISTS at Nottingham Trent University are developing a machine that can detect an outbreak of bird flu in two hours.
It currently takes up to a week to identify different types of bird flu, including the potentially fatal H5N1 strain.
But scientists say they are now helping to develop a portable machine the size of a briefcase which can be used at the scene of a suspected outbreak. The £2.3 million project, known as Portfastflu, is being funded by the European Union.
The university says the technology will mean officials can set up exclusion zones and cull infected birds far quicker.
The machine, which will be designed by a French company, should be completed by December 2010.
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Mary Critchley | 22 August 2008 11:53 am
A RT-PCR machine that fits in a briefcase? Excellent. But the technology has existed since 2000! warmwell.com posted this on 18th Aug: "....Dr Roger Breeze tells us that the Indonesian government and US Department of Defense Global Emerging Infections Surveillance System (GEISS) have already been monitoring, detecting and responding to avian influenza H5N1 in Indonesia for several years. GEISS uses PCR devices in labs and also the Idaho Technology RAPID for portable field detection. Dr Breeze points out that the RAPID "is sold in a small suitcase." (There is a lot more about this on the warmwell.com website. Rapid portable diagnosis should be used to identify virus quickly in order to protect birds with vaccination That vaccination has been ignored by the intensive industry and backed by politics is shameful. And existing rapid diagnostic kits have been ignored too - yet they have been effectively in use elsewhere in the world for years. Why must the EU and the UK insist on reinventing the wheel, spending millions in the process? )
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