Applied Biosystems and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA), a UK government agency specializing in animal disease surveillance and veterinary research, have announced a strategic collaboration to manufacture and commercialize the VLA's molecular avian influenza and Newcastle disease environmental detection kits.

These kits are expected to be broadly available in Europe and other parts of the world, such as Asia and Africa. This collaboration is intended to help early detection of these harmful bird diseases, which is a critical step in managing the threat posed by these diseases.

The VLA has used these tests to confirm that the avian flu strain that recently killed 2,600 turkeys in Suffolk, England was the H5N1 virus. It was the first reported case of H5N1 on a UK commercial farm. The agency said that early detection enabled immediate response to contain the outbreak. These tests have also been used in a follow-up enhanced survey of the wild bird population.

The goal of the VLA and Applied Biosystems agreement is to make these types of tests - known as assays - more readily available for the same type of early warning detection in various countries. In addition to the Influenza A virus and its H5 subtype, the assays are also expected to address the H7 subtype and Newcastle disease. The new assays are designed to rapidly and reliably detect a broad range of avian influenza strains in laboratory samples.

"This collaboration agreement between Veterinary Laboratories Agency and Applied Biosystems is an ideal opportunity to combine both VLA's experience and expertise of these two very important avian diseases and Applied Biosystems' expertise and manufacturing skills," said Professor Steve Edwards, chief executive of VLA. "As with any notifiable disease, rapid confirmation is essential for control measures to be implemented quickly and to minimise the impact. These molecular detection methods should help to improve, sensitivity, specificity and turnaround time. We look forward to a long and successful partnership."

Under the terms of the agreement, Applied Biosystems will commercialize the VLA real-time PCR assays. Real-time PCR is a laboratory method used to simultaneously detect and determine the amount of nucleic acids present in samples.

The VLA assays are veterinary molecular tests that are used in a laboratory. Applied Biosystems intends to further develop these assays in a new dry format designed to render more reliable results by consolidating steps in the testing process and minimizing manual procedures. The VLA will perform the validation prior to the release of the tests, which are intended for use in animal health laboratories around the world outside the United States.