Scrapie test more widely available

Orchid BioSciences, a leading worldwide provider of identity DNA testing services, has launched a new testing kit for scrapie susceptibility based on its highly accurate and robust proprietary genotyping assay.

Orchid, the largest provider of scrapie susceptibility genotyping in the world, has already used this assay to genotype more than 1.3 million sheep in its UK-based, high throughput scrapie susceptibility testing service. The new kit has been designed for customers with lower-throughput testing requirements who want to benefit from the accuracy of this analytical approach when conducting sheep genotyping in their own laboratories.

'We are pleased to broaden the availability of what we believe to be the most robust, widely-used assay in the world for scrapie susceptibility genotyping,' said David Hartshorne, commercial director of Orchid Europe. 'With this new offering we work with our customers to determine the most practical and cost-effective scrapie genotyping solution for their needs, whether it be conducted in our facility or in their own laboratory.'

European Union legislation requires countries to introduce compulsory scrapie genotyping programs beginning in April, 2005. Scrapie is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that affects sheep worldwide and has the potential to cause significant economic losses to farmers through the destruction of infected animals and by affecting confidence in the safety of the food supply. Scientists have discovered a number of genetic variations that affect an individual sheep's susceptibility to scrapie. By selecting those sheep with high genetic resistance as breeding stock, over time farmers expect to produce flocks with greatly reduced vulnerability to the condition.

Additionally, Orchid announced that it has signed an agreement with Prion Diagnostica to commercialise this new scrapie susceptibility testing kit in Italy. Headquartered in Milan, Prion Diagnostica develops and markets diagnostic products and services in a number of different veterinary and food safety applications and is a leading provider of rapid diagnostic tests for BSE, or "mad cow disease". Italy has an estimated sheep population of over 11 million and, like most European countries, has occasionally found prion-infected sheep in its flocks.

Since 2001, Orchid has been a major supplier of genotyping services to UK sheep farmers under the government's National Scrapie Plan (NSP), which is designed to help farmers breed sheep with reduced susceptibility to scrapie. Orchid is also the exclusive genotyping supplier to the Northern Ireland Scrapie Plan and provides a commercial testing service directly to farmers in the U.K.