Bogotá D.C., February 25^th 2010- With Drs. Kelen Kehler and Tomiko Hisanaga´s visit to the reference laboratory from the Animal World Health Organization, OIE, located in Winnipeg – Canadá CFIA the twining program initiated with the National Veterinary Laboratory,  LNDV, from the Colombian Agriculture and Livestock Institute ICA, located in Bogotá.

 

The technical commission that will stay in the country until March 3^rd was greeted by ICA general manager, Luis Fernando Caicedo Lince and will also visit the veterinarian diagnostic laboratories of ICA in Bucaramanga Santander and Tulua, Valle del Cauca.

 

This three years project aims to acknowledge the Colombian laboratory as reference for Newcastle and Avian Influenza diagnosis, according to world needs for analyses of these two poultry diseases.

 

“For ICA is very important to belong to a Veterinarian Diagnosis twining program, oriented to support technical and training activities that will allow certifying procedures and possible regional or world analyses required by OIE”, pointed out by Luis Fernando Caicedo Lince, ICA´s general manager.

 

The twining program will have an investment close to 300 million pesos that will include training and teaching activities in laboratory techniques that will be developed in LNDV of ICA and Canada’s reference laboratory.

 

Likewise the project includes comparison tests or inter laboratories and event organization in Colombia in which personnel from ICA and representatives of Andean countries will attend, with which it is expected to establish a support in the future by LNDV in these two diseases diagnosis.

 

Among these tests, besides serological tests, there has been implemented viral isolation in embryonated eggs SPF and molecular diagnosis by the RT-PCR and sequencing, both from samples taken directly from the field (cotton swabs, tissues) as well as viral isolations done in the laboratory.