Prionics Launches Test for Early Detection of Bluetongue Virus

Prionics has launched a highly effective and reliable ELISA for the early detection of antibodies specific to the Bluetongue Virus (BTV) in cattle, sheep and goats. BTV causes disease outbreaks which can spread quickly among animal herds causing substantial economic losses in affected countries. At one time the virus was limited to countries located near the equator, but in recent years increasingly more serotypes of the virus have spread to Northern Europe.

To combat the disease Prionics now offers the PrioCHECK® BTV DR, a diagnostic test that detects all 24 BTV serotypes known.

Early Detection
The new Prionics PrioCHECK® BTV DR can detect very low titers of anti-BTV antibodies already at post infection day 6 in sheep and at post infection day 7 in cattle. Infection detection dates were determined in a study conducted by the OIE Reference Laboratory in Pirbright, England, where experimentally infected animals were tested with the PrioCHECK® BTV DR at various days post infection.

'Early detection and elimination of infected animals are key to controlling the disease,' says Dr. Markus Moser, CEO of Prionics. 'The PrioCHECK® BTV DR is the first product resulting from our strategic partnership with Ingenasa. This excellent test has proven its reliability in practice and will now be made available world-wide.' The new test is also highly suitable for vaccination programs that are applied to combat Bluetongue. The Prionics test can be used to identify immunized animals making it a useful tool for monitoring the success of these programs.