- Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Shri Radha Mohan Singh on January 9, 2019 released recombinant Enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) kits: one for Glanders and other for Equine Infectious Anaemia.
- Both these diseases are notifiable diseases in India and require special diagnosis for control and eradication in the country.
- Glanders is a fatal infectious and notifiable disease of equines including horses, donkeys and mules.The disease is caused by a bacterium known as Burkholderia mallei and has zoonotic potential. The organism is also considered as potential bio-weapon and categorized under ‘Tier 1 Select Agent’.
- After continuous research efforts of more than eight years, National Research Centre on Equines (NRCE) has been able to develop a recombinant Hcp1 antigen ELISA as an alternate to complement-fixation test (CFT).
- The ELISA has been duly validated in India and the OIE Reference Laboratory, Germany and showed excellent sensitivity (97.2%) and specificity (99.6%).
- This technology has been transferred to eight State Disease Diagnostic Laboratories following approval of DADF, Ministry of Agriculture & Family Welfare and commercialized for transformation into ready to use kit. This ELISA has a huge potential of international commercialization as recombinant protein-based ELISA is not available in any other country. This technology will prove to be a milestone in the control and eradication of glanders from India.
- Equine infectious anaemia (EIA) is a chronic, debilitating and persistent infectious disease of equines caused by a retrovirus. It is an OIE notifiable disease.NRCE has also developed recombinant p26 protein-based ELISA as an alternative to Coggin’s test. This technology will provide sustainable and homogeneous source of antigen and harmonized protocol to ensure regular surveillance of EIA.
- Both kits are highly economical as compare to imported kits.
