Project Manager: Dr Ben Mans
The Project’s main objectives are to maintain, improve and provide reliable, accurate, cost-effective and timeous diagnostic services in veterinary parasitology. These diagnostic capabilities are of the utmost importance to the livestock and wildlife industries. Accurate diagnoses are required by government and the private sector to control economically important controlled and notifiable disease outbreaks in production animals and at the livestock wildlife interface, e.g. Corridor disease.
We provide
serology and
molecular diagnostic services for:
- the State controlled and socio-economic important diseases
- the import and export of companion animals and wildlife
This laboratory achieved
SANAS 17025 Accreditation status in October 2010 and continued Quality Control is a prerequisite for maintaining this status. The Accredited scope includes
molecular and
serological tests.
DNA Extraction and Real-time PCR for detection of
Theileria parva
IFAT for Babesia bigemina and
Babesia bovis
IFAT for Theileria equi and Babesia caballi
IFAT for
Babesia gibsoni
IFAT for
Theileria parva (Cattle)
cELISA for
Theileria equi
PVVD Technical competencies - IFA
- ELISA
- PCR
- Tissue Culture
- RLB, LAMP
New technical staff receive training in all techniques for 4 months
| Strategically, the project in future will endeavour to move away from the more conventional tests performed (IFAT specifically) towards molecular, state of the art diagnostics.
Genomics Currently, the PVVD Programme imports commercial ELISA kits for the routine diagnosis of
Theileria parva,
Babesia bigemina, B bovis, Theileria equi, Babesia caballi. These kits are expensive and can be assembled locally. The PVVD Programme is involved in the development and improvement of these tools
|
Specific genomic applications include:
Diagnostics and services related to endoparasites include:
faecal worm egg counts
larval and adult worm counts and identifications
faecal egg count reduction tests to determine anthelmintic resistance
Cysticercosis (measles) viability tests
A list of the diagnostic services provided by PVVD can be downloaded
pdf
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