Abstract Book of EAVLD2012 - eavld congress 2012

S2 - K - 01
WHEN DO YOU WANT THE RESULT? HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO PAY!
Andrew Soldan
Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, AHVLA Weybridge, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey, KT15 3NB, UK
The results of some tests are not time critical. For
surveillance testing of healthy populations to confirm the absence
of disease the cost of testing and the ability to handle large
numbers of tests is likely to be more important than the speed to
result. In many other circumstances a result the day after
sampling is perfectly adequate. However there are situations
when a same day result or even a next to patient result would be
advantageous. In general these tests can justify a higher unit kit
cost. This paper explores the relationship between cost,
convenience and speed to result of tests for infectious disease in
animals. It considers what an ideal rapid patient side test would
look like.
In human medicine very large sums are being invested to
develop point to care testing, especially for molecular agent
detection. However point of care testing in humans is not the
equivalent of pen-side testing for animals. It is likely that a spin
off from the investment in human diagnostics will be significant
improvements in near patient animal testing. This will be done in
practice labs, labs set up close to a disease outbreak and in
regional rather than central labs. The new tests will be rapid,
accurate, and need little skill or training to run. For veterinary
applications it is likely that platforms with lower instrument costs
will find greater acceptance. An issue that both veterinary
practitioners and regulators will need to address is that owners
will be able to buy and run many of these tests themselves.
This paper discusses the major categories of rapid tests for
serology and agent detection including consideration of some of
the commercial technologies that are just coming to market.
Rapid tests, point of care testing, pen-side testing, cost, speed