APHA strengthens bluetongue disease response
To support the national response, testing of bluetongue samples is now taking place at APHA's Weybridge laboratories, alongside The Pirbright Institute.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency’s laboratory in Weybridge is now undertaking bluetongue sample testing to support the increasing amount of testing required by the unprecedented scale of the outbreak. Testing is being undertaken in close collaboration with the National Reference Laboratory for bluetongue, The Pirbright Institute. This aims to speed up the process of providing bluetongue test results.
APHA leads the response to disease outbreak for all animal diseases affecting the UK and is an International Reference Laboratory for 18 major animal diseases including Avian Influenza and Rabies, and a National Reference Laboratory for 49 diseases including Salmonella and bovine TB. APHA already has high containment animal pathogen laboratories built to handle serious livestock and animal diseases classified under containment level 3 of the UK’s Specified Animal Pathogens Order (SAPO). Part of APHA’s disease response planning is to be able to ramp up testing during an outbreak like this, to support the national response.
Samples should continue to be submitted to The Pirbright Institute. To enable efficient processing, submission forms must be attached securely on the outside of the parcel so that samples which are diverted to Weybridge can be rapidly booked into the digital sample handling system without the need to take the parcel inside the high containment laboratory. Results of bluetongue samples tested will continue to be reported in the same way.
Both The Pirbright Institute and APHA Weybridge laboratories continue to test samples for other exotic notifiable diseases, and keepers should continue to report any suspicion of other exotic notifiable diseases to APHA. Any samples submitted will be rapidly tested and the laboratories are ready to ensure any future exotic disease incursions are managed appropriately.
Longer term, the government is investing over £1 billion to transform the existing laboratory facilities at Weybridge and to build a National Biosecurity Centre (NBC). This new state of the art science hub will serve as the UK’s foremost animal biosecurity facility, providing ‘end to end’ capability from prevention and research to outbreak response. It will support the future of world-leading animal health science in the UK, protecting the nation from the increasing threat of animal and zoonotic diseases (diseases that pass from animals to humans). The investment in NBC assures trade in animal products worth an estimated £16 billion a year to the UK economy.
Bluetongue test results reported from APHA will state ‘BTV’ and The Pirbright Institute reports will state ‘BTV-3’. Whichever you receive, a positive result emailed directly can be assumed to be BTV-3. Tests are being undertaken for other serotypes where necessary, and if they are detected then confirmatory testing will be performed before disease confirmation and reporting through APHA.