Qiagen to provide testing products to combat avian flu outbreak

Qiagen has announced that it will be providing a broad range of advanced testing solutions to customers in Europe and Asia Pacific to combat the current avian flu outbreak.

In light of the recent spate of influenza A cases threatening poultry across these regions, the company will be offering its reliable and ready-to-use virotype Influenza A RT-PCR Kit to veterinary laboratories and relevant agencies.

This assay kit runs on Qiagen's Rotor-Gene Q detection platform and enables diagnoses within just two hours. It can detect 16 HA and nine NA subtypes of the virus in poultry and swine samples, including the highly pathogenic H5N8 variant.

The firm is also providing a range of instruments and consumables to enable complete workflows. This will help to lessen the severity of the current outbreak, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 12 million animals so far.

Dr Carsten Schroeder, Qiagen's director of market development for veterinary applications, said: "Our rapid-detection virotype Influenza A RT-PCR assay can help stop the epidemic before it causes more animal deaths and financial damage to the poultry industry."

Last month, the company received AOAC certification for its Mericon pathogen detection assays, for the detection of Listeria pathogens in common foods.