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Sysmex Corporation (HQ: Kobe, Japan; President: Hisashi Ietsugu) announced today the release of "POCTEM Avian Influenza," a rapid influenza diagnostic kit for chickens, on January, 2009.
Japan's first test kit of its kind to receive manufacturing and marketing approval from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, POCTEM Avian Influenza applies technology utilized in POCTEM, the kit used at hospitals and clinics for rapid diagnosis of influenza in human beings, to make a simplified diagnosis of chickens infected with avian influenza within approx. 15 minutes.
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Avian influenza is an infectious disease among fowls. Recent years have seen an extremely pathogenic variety, which is highly contagious and fatal, affecting the greater part of Asia and elsewhere. Because of the sheer impact on the poultry industry such as chicken raising and its distribution system, it is considered one of the most alarming infectious livestock diseases.
Humans rarely become infected with avian influenza; however, as bird-to-bird infection spreads, an increasing number of cases of animal-to-human transmission have been reported, with some patients becoming critically ill. Because humans are not immune to avian influenza, it is feared that an influenza pandemic could be triggered should avian influenza mutate into a form transmittable to humans, making it necessary to take greater precautions in the interest of public health as well.
In order to prevent an epidemic of avian influenza, it is critical to take proper action in response as soon as the infection of fowls is discovered. When chickens at a poultry farm are suspected to have been infected with avian influenza, they are examined with viral isolation and serum antibody titer test. It has nonetheless been difficult to make rapid determinations using this method, because the number of sites equipped with the special facilities and technology needed for such determinations is limited, and it takes time to carry them out.
Applying technology utilized in POCTEM, the kit used at hospitals and clinics for rapid diagnosis of influenza in human beings, POCTEM Avian Influenza utilizes swabs from chicken cloacae and tracheae as samples to make a simplified diagnosis of chickens infected with avian influenza within approx. 15 minutes. Unlike the conventional test, this kit enables rapid, easy, and inexpensive detection, and is expected to facilitate prompt initial action for the early discovery and containment of infection with this deadly influenza.
[About the product]
・ Product name: POCTEM Avian Influenza
・ No. of tests: 10 / box
・ Measuring time: 15 minutes
・ Marketed in: Japan
・ Marketed to: Livestock hygiene service centers, etc.
[Product photo]
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