Washington Ag Today October 28, 2009 There is currently no effective treatment for bovine tuberculosis so early diagnosis is critical. Dr. William Davis in Washington State University’s Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology department, together with science and industry colleagues has developed an anti-body test for bTB that can detect the disease faster and with greater accuracy.

Current testing for bTB can take days. Davis says his multiplex antibody test just takes hours and there are fewer false positives.

Davis: “When it is done it is three hours from the start of processing to the time of information analysis. So that is one aspect. As they have it developed now for high through-put, say with four technicians operating in essence at full tilt, they can process 25-hundred samples in a day, so this gives a rapid through-put. These are things that haven‘t been achievable with other assays that are currently being explored.”

Davis worked with Irish scientists who had developed a quick turn around high volume through-put test for BSE.

A major economic impact Davis sees from the new bTB test is that it can eliminate the need to depopulate an entire herd because of one sick animal.

There is currently an effort to license the new test in the U.S.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

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