Dermot's diary #3

You're monitoring the developing Foot and Mouth situation. 

'Yes, very closely. News is that while KwaZulu-Natal remains a major hotspot, outbreaks have been confirmed across multiple provinces, including Limpopo, North West, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Free State and Eastern Cape'.

And vaccination is the key, right? 

 'Yes. And there are interesting developments there. Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) released the first local produced FMDV vaccine in over 20 years a few weeks ago, releasing 12 900 doses. They have indicated they'd like production to scale up to 20 000 doses per week from the beginning of March'.

The South African government says it hopes to vaccinate 14 million cattle within the next 12 months. That's a considerable task.

'Absolutely. Interestingly, Botswana is also involved in the fight. It's Vaccine Institute (BVI), established in the 1970s, produces high quality livestock vaccines relevant to Southern Africa and they have ramped up production'.

And Celtic's role?

'Surveillance and monitoring is an essential tool in control of the outbreak. We offer an array of molecular tools for research and diagnostics, not just relevant to this outbreak but across animal health'.
https://celticdiagnostics.com/collections/youseq

What other sectors are trending at the moment?

'There's a notable focus on food security, likely because of Foot and Mouth being front of mind. For us that means testing relating to salmonella, listeria and, in the veterinary field, mastitis. We have just acquired a new test form DNA Diagnostic that will assist dairies and food testing laboratories with milk testing cutting turnaround time to hours not days.'
https://dna-diagnostic.com/products/mastitis/

And with National Birth Defect Day coming up on March 3, we are reminded of the importance of antenatal testing. (We'll experience our traditional uptick in antenatal testing). Developments in this area are interesting, and we are excited that MRC Holland are about to release the NXtec D028 Carrier Panel 1. This is a high-throughput assay delivering precise detection of CNVs in genomic regions associated with nine autosomal recessive or X-linked disorders. Designed to be the perfect complement to sequencing, this panel detects genomic targets associated with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Duchenne & Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD, BMD), alpha- and beta-thalassemia, cystic fibrosis (CF), congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), DFNB1 hearing loss, juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis and cystinosis.

And finally, you wanted to talk about gut health?

'Yes. I've been watching the progress made in the field of faecal transplants, which is of course all part and parcel of gut health, very topical. Faecal Microbiota Transplants (FMT) are primarily used to treat recurrent or severe Clostridium difficle infections by restoring healthy gut bacteria, with a success rate of 80–90%.  Celtic have a broad array of kits for Clostirodium research and diagnostics.'

https://celticdiagnostics.com/search?q=clostridium+difficile&_pos=3&_psq=clostir&_ss=e&_v=1.0

'For other gut conditions antibiotics are traditionally used. That spectrum needs to be very specific if treatment doesn't do more harm than good, and we've recently taken on a test to help identify which antibiotics are – and aren't – useful for specific conditions. Determining what a patient's microbiome is a vital part of the equation." https://youseq.com/product/the-one-16s-ngs-library-prep-kit/2