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K-State Veterinary Diagnostics Lab to debut new bovine health tKansas The Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, a part of Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, will be the first laboratory in the nation to use a newly developed, highly sensitive test to accurately detect bovine viral diarrhea virus, also called BVDV. For cattle producers, the virus causes economic losses through decreased weight gains, decreased milk production, reproductive losses and death. It is estimated that 80 percent of cattle in the U.S. have been exposed to the virus, and that 70 percent to 90 percent of infections go undetected, without visible symptoms. The K-State lab recently completed training in the administration of the new test. "We're very pleased to provide the BVDV test to veterinarians and producers of Kansas and surrounding states," said Dr. Gary Anderson, lab director. "Prior technology was viewed as too difficult, unreliable or too costly to run in a high throughput environment. This program truly complements the wide range of diagnostic services we provide for all species." The testing protocol was developed and evaluated in Europe by AnDiaTec, a German company, whose owner, Dr. Johannes Kehle, believes K-State offers several strategic advantages in serving the needs of American cattle producers. "I have toured K-State's new lab facilities that are designed to handle the high volume of testing the lab handles, and I'm very impressed," he said. "They will have no problem in receiving, processing and turning out the highest quality results in the United States." The testing procedure identifies and differentiates the two types of BVDV infections in cattle: persistent and transient. Results indicate the test can detect all 68 reference strains of BVDV, including atypical European and American strains like the HOBI and H138 strains. "The polymerase-chain reaction test utilizes a proprietary process--a lysis buffer--that eliminates the need for the costly, labor-intensive and time-consuming step of extracting RNA from the sample," said Dr. Dick Oberst, director of molecular diagnostics for the K-State lab. "When this lysis buffer is coupled with the new reagents, we have the confidence to detect a single positive ear notch in a pool of samples within a few short hours." A full-service laboratory, the K-State Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory offers a complete range of animal health diagnostic and consultative services in an accurate and timely manner to the veterinary and animal health community in Kansas and the nation. The lab, accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, is a teaching and research component of the department of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, the College of Veterinary Medicine and K-State. More information on the lab and services it provides is available by calling 866-512-5650 or on the Web at: www.vet.ksu.edu/depts/dmp/service/index.htm. A 7 8/13/07 Date: 7/26/07
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