Amazing progress in avian influenza diagnostics helps reduce risk of epidemic outbreak in country – Temuco Television

In September 2022, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) issued an alert to Central and South America due to the risk of entry of the H5N1 subtype highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI). Then, in October, Colombia reported its first case, and by the end of the year, cases had appeared throughout the Pacific coast, including Chile. This year, Peruvian authorities extended a national health alert until 2023 after nearly 3,500 sea lions and 63,000 birds died from the flu. Meanwhile, Argentina has confirmed its first poultry case, and people in Cambodia, Ecuador and China have also been infected, in some cases causing death.

In Chile, the Agency for Agriculture and Livestock (SAG) has put the country on health alert by strengthening active monitoring programs and called on the academic and scientific communities to find new mechanisms to curb this threat to Chile’s ecology and food security. Country.Planet.

In response to this call, the Catholic University of Temuco has opened the Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory of the UCT School of Natural Resources, which will strengthen the diagnostic capabilities of zoonotic pathogens such as avian influenza in La Araucania, its facilities will become part of the university. National network of HPAI epidemiological surveillance laboratories, thereby supporting the surveillance activities of health authorities and increasing the sensitivity of national systems for the detection of HPAI or other pathogens of public health importance or relevance. Livestock production.

Avian influenza, also known as avian influenza, is an infectious disease caused by viruses in the family Orthomyxoviridae, which mainly affects poultry and wild birds. In this laboratory, highly sophisticated and very fast equipment can be used to detect pathogens through techniques such as quantitative PCR, which will avoid the waiting time for samples to be sent to San Diego for analysis.