Biochek bulletin 2 by raoul nijst

SECOND ISSUE

BioChek: animal health is our central focus everywhere.

“Invest in one world, one health!” Joaquim Segalés, director of CReSA

Eric Jensen of Aviagen

“Fewer false positives and efﬁcient data delivery”

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Foreword Keeping animals healthy, guaranteeing animal welfare and controlling contagious zoonotic diseases… we work on these objectives daily. In the sheds, the laboratory… animal health is a central focus everywhere. The starting point is that every measure must be taken to prevent diseases. After all, prevention is always better than healing. It involves sound research into animal health with reliable results. Eric Jensen of Aviagen agrees with this principle. Not surprisingly, he decided to introduce a new test method to detect Mycoplasma. You can read about the how and why in this new BioChek Bulletin. You will also find an interview with Joaquim Segalés, director of the well-known research institute into animal health, CReSA (Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal). He talks about the activities of his research institute and calls for more international research into diseases and their control. He is concerned not only about the animals’ health, but also the international public health. There is an interview with Dan Wilson talking about Rose Acre Farms’ experiences with the BioChek Elisa Assay Robot (BEAR), which can carry out all of the essential ELISA tests quickly and reliably with a minimum of staff, and thus lower costs.

Contents An asset for our company

Page 4

Investing more in international research is not a superﬂuous luxury

Page 6

President’s Column

Page 8

Aviagen’s new testing system means fewer false-positive Mycoplasma results

Page 9

Editors: Nora Sinnema, Femke de Lint Contributing Editor: Nijst Communicatie Graphic Design: Commplot

Finally, we go to Russia, where the poultry veterinarian Boris Sergeevich Skiba has final responsibility for the health of the poultry of the Cherkizovo Group. With over 200 million broiler chicks, that is an enormous job. All of these articles are published in our latest BioChek Bulletin, and I and my colleagues wish you lots of reading pleasure.

Barend van Dam CEO BioChek

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Dan Wilson of Rose Acre Farms

An asset for our company Starting 18 months ago, all ELISA tests at Rose Acre Farms Laboratory have been conducted with the BioChek Elisa Assay Robot (BEAR). Dan Wilson is the poultry veterinarian at Rose Acre Farms. He considers the BEAR to be an asset for Rose Acre Farms, as it greatly helps with monitoring the health of the flocks.

ver the years, Rose Acre Farms has grown from a rural chicken farm into one of the largest producers of eggs and egg products in the USA. The headquarters of this American family company was established in the 1930s in Seymour, Indiana. It also has locations in six other states with additional farms in developement. Rose Acre Farms’ operational management is self-sufficient. It has its own breeding and laying hen farms, as well as feed milling locations. Dr Dan Wilson has been working as the poultry veterinarian at Rose Acre Farms since 2012. Before he was engaged, external veterinarians were always called in. Why did they decide now to have their own veterinarian? “When I started working at Rose Acre Farms, the veterinary care was well organised. Poultry veterinarians were called in when diseases and

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disorders broke out or to design vaccination programmes. Serological testing was outsourced to external laboratories. But there was no continuous health monitoring. And that was something the management was interested in changing, given their emphasis on production and set quality requirements. That led to the decision to employ a veterinarian.

Serological testing

One of the first matters that Wilson addressed was the serological testing. “I was not satisfied with the way in which the diagnostic serological testing was organised. And along with feed and living conditions, it is one of the most important items in the field of prevention and vaccination monitoring. The work was outsourced to several different laboratories. They did their work well but Rose Acre Farms

was overly dependent on the method these laboratories used. It had no influence on the test employed, the speed and timing of the result or the type of report. Each laboratory had its own procedure. That did not promote quality or efficiency.�

Own laboratory

On Wilson’s recommendation, Rose Acre Farms decided to set up its own serological laboratory. “In that way, we gained more control over the serological testing; you can decide yourself whether, when and for what pathogens to test.� Wilson added, “It was just a coincidence that at that moment the BEAR was introduced. After a few

“I can resolve the situation remotely if necessary. And in the morning all of the test results are waiting. What else could you possibly want?“

good discussions with BioChek, we decided to outfit our laboratory with the BEAR This ELISA robot quickly proved its helpfulness. Neither my assistant nor I had much experience with conducting ELISA tests. And looking at the number of tests that needed to be done, we didn’t have the time, either. The BEAR solved these problems for us.. Not only that, it is extremely user-friendly. We put the samples in, start the device and don’t have to worry about anything. The testing takes very little of our time.� Wilson states that ELISA testing can also be done outside working hours. That’s handy if samples need to be tested urgently. “When I go home in the evening, I turn the BEAR on. At home I can log in to see if the robot is running well or if there are problems. I can resolve the situation remotely if necessary. And in the morning all of the test results are waiting. What else could you possibly want?�

Precision

Rose Acre Farms has now been working with the BEAR for about 18 months. Wilson is still enthusiastic. “The results are extremely reliable, and I can make great

trend analyses of the animals’ health with them. When Rose Acre Farms had just acquired the BEAR, I was testing several live IBD vaccines. I wanted to compare their effectiveness. As part of that analysis, I put several random samples in the device. I was amazed to find that we had a significant IBD challenge, despite the fact that we had vaccinated against IBD. Our live IBD vaccination programme was clearly not working properly. And I would never have found that out without the BEAR! I subsequently tested the entire company’s growing locations for IBD challenges. We were able to get the bursal disease challenge under control promptly thanks to the BEAR�

Software

The BEAR interfaces with the BioChek II software program that records, compares and analyses all the data from the examined chicken flocks. Wilson considers that very important for monitoring the health of the poultry. “When I have to decide whether or not to vaccinate, for example, then I can get all the data I require from the software program. That is a tremendous benefit compared to other systems. There are comparable systems that only report the test results in pdf format. The results then have to be analysed manually. That not only takes time, it allows more errors to be made. The software provides continuous, very reliable monitoring of the chicken flocks.�

Satisfaction

Overall, Wilson is very satisfied with the BEAR “The BEAR is clearly handy and reliable. The quality and quantity of our serology and ELISA testing have improved. And that means a great upgrading of our preventive care. This is exactly what the management was looking for. It is a real asset for Rose Acre Farms. Without a doubt.�

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Investing more in international research is not a superﬂuous luxury Proper monitoring and controlling of animal diseases demand sound, high-quality research. Not only for the health of animals, but the international public health as well. Zoonoses are a serious problem. One of the most prominent research institutes devoted to animal health is the Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal, or CReSA in Barcelona. We talked to Joaquim Segalés, who has been the director of this renowned research institute since 2012.

oaquim Segalés, DVM PhD, is senior lecturer in the Faculty of Animal Health at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and also director of CReSA. He has gained an international reputation with his research into viral porcine diseases such as Porcine Circovirus type 2 infections (PCV2), one of the many diseases being investigated by CReSA. “The focus of CReSA is animal health. We conduct research into the prevention and spread of diseases, pathogenic mechanisms, immune response and the effectiveness of existing vaccines and ones undergoing development. Our institute also carries out activities in aid of human health care, such as conducting research into zoonotic infections.�

CReSA

Most of CReSA’s activities involve disease monitoring and disease control. “Certainly in terms of monitoring, the development of diagnostic methods to trace pathogens and antibodies is very important. We also conduct a lot of research that is used to develop vaccine prototypes.� Joaquim Segalés feels that this fits the CReSA philosophy perfectly. “CReSA was not set up to heal diseases but to prevent them. Or in other words: to deal with diseases is not our primary aim, we want to deal with health!� And this Catalan research institute is certainly successful at that. The CReSA researchers have developed high-quality techniques to diagnose the classic swine fever and PCV2 and play an important role in the research to prevent African swine fever. “African swine fever is caused by a highly contagious and complex virus, for which no vaccine has yet been found. We are busy developing a vaccine, and the results so far are promising.�

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Unpredictable threats

Joaquim Segalés stated that African swine fever is currently one of the greatest threats for pigs in Western Europe. A number of cases of this disease have been confirmed in Poland and on the border with Belarus. “African swine fever is a very unpredictable disease carrying an enormous risk for the pork industry. You never know how this disease will manifest. But that is inherent to all diseases. Take the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV). When PEDV first appeared in 2013, no one expected that this would become such a major problem. The disease is a problem in Asia, America and now also in Europe. It certainly will be even a more severe problem if the American non-indel strains appear in Europe; high morbidity with mortality exceeding 50% in piglets has not been unusual in USA.� Along with PEDV, Segalés stressed the increase in the number of outbreaks of avian influenza especially in South France lately. This disease poses a grave threat to poultry and the public health. “The virus continues to reassort. There was recently an outbreak in the south of France which was found to be due to the new, highly pathogenic Eurasian H5N1. These types of outbreaks will occur more frequently. Despite the fact that there are vaccines that protect against most of the known strains, the continuing re-assortments of the wild virus make this protection suboptimal. Further research is urgently required. And it is important not only for the animals’ health, but also for the human one!�

Zoonoses

“The threat of zoonotic infections is ever present,� continued Joaquim Segalés. “Look at Campylobacteriosis in poultry. The poultry do not become sick from this bacteria,

but it is the number 1 cause of food poisoning in people! Campylobacter is responsible every year for more cases of disease than Salmonella, which is also a source of worry. Just looking at Europe, Salmonella is everywhere. Sound monitoring programmes have been developed that enable us to control the disease somewhat. With an emphasis on ‘somewhat’, because we are far from controlling Salmonella. It is important to keep testing both poultry and pigs for Salmonella.� Joaquim Segalés emphasised that research into zoonoses is becoming increasingly important. Especially as he sees an increasing ‘globalisation’ of zoonoses. “Along with Salmonella, avian influenza occurs around the world

Take responsibility

Given the increasing threat to public health posed by zoonoses, the development of reliable vaccines is becoming critical. And Segalés sees that as a challenge. “Who will develop these vaccines? Pharmaceutical companies whose core business is vaccines? Pharmaceutical companies are only interested in developing a vaccine if they anticipate a large market for it. So if they do not see a significant profit in a particular vaccine, they will not invest in its development. They want to make a profit after all, which is logical as well. And if a pharmaceutical company decides to develop a vaccine, then developing countries do not have the money

Joaquim Segalés, director of CReSA

“That is why I am repeating the call made by the WHO and OIE to all international governments: take your responsibility now and invest in one world, one health!”

and could take a pandemic form. Another viral zoonosis that occurs commonly is Rift Valley Fever, which primarily infects animals but has been known to make people sick, too. And finally the MERS -coronavirus that manifested in 2012 and caused an airway infection in humans exposed to dromedaries.� In the vision of Joaquim Segalés, the controlling of zoonoses is becoming increasingly difficult given the wide variety of routes of infection and manifestations. One of the greatest worries is that zoonoses spread around the globe, as people and animals travel the world. “A zoonosis can easily spread from one continent to another in planes or aerosols in the air. Bacteria and viruses are not stopped by a passport control. Just look at the Ebola virus in Africa. In addition, global warming and the associated climate changes are an important cause of the increase in the number of zoonotic vector-borne infections. One obvious example is the Chikungunya virus that is transferred from mosquitoes to people and manifests worldwide, including in Europe.�

to buy them. The WHO and OIE are aware of this problem. We always talk about one world and health for everyone: the One Health concept. But honestly we are still a long way from that goal. The global financial possibilities to conduct research into diseases and vaccines are limited. Cutbacks are being made all over, and governments are not setting aside funds to solve the complex and sometimes pressing public health problems. At the same time, those governments invest huge sums in, for example, unnecessary infrastructure. That is unbelievable! We see this also in Spain. The government paid for a number of airports that are not used ... how is that possible? But there the money for research is rather limited. Even though everyone knows that research into diseases and their control can give people and animals a better and healthier future. That is why I am repeating the call made by the WHO and OIE to all international governments: take your responsibility now and invest in one world, one health!�

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President’s Column Barend van Dam, CEO BioChek

ne of the greatest examples of serendipity is Last February, the Netherlands arranged a conference in undoubtedly the discovery of penicillin by Amsterdam between government officials from the Public Sir Alexander Fleming in September 1928. A Health Department and from the Agriculture Department discovery for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for -for the first time in the history of the EU- to discuss the Medicine years later together with Ernst Chain and Howard threat of antibiotic resistance, and it was successful! It was Florey. The effects of penicillin were unprecedented. In less agreed that European countries would address antibiotic than 30 years, the life expectancy increased by 8 years! In resistance together in the fields of health care and livestock addition, animals given a low dose of antibiotics in their feed breeding. In Amsterdam during the Dutch EU-presidency, remained healthier, lived longer and… grew more rapidly. Minister Edith Schippers (Public Health) and her colleague Given the increasing size of the world population, this was Martijn van Dam (Agriculture) argued expressly for the greatest solution for the steeply improved prevention of infection rising demand for meat, milk and eggs. and diagnostics. This means more “If it were up to me, the preventive monitoring so antibiotics level would be so high that Fleming’s discovery has proved to be can be administered as effectively priceless. But penicillin is a success and sparingly as possible. And they Fleming’s serendipitous story that seems to be sinking under its were absolutely right! Because just discovery when he was own success. The danger that Fleming vaccinating and taking steps to prevent warned about already in 1945 became (re)infection in and into the sheds cultivating Staphylococci only too real at the beginning of the is not enough to reduce the use of 1990s on a massive scale: a terrifying would continue to be applied antibiotics. After all, how do we know rise in resistance to antibiotics. That is whether the vaccination was effective? successfully for years to come.” Could the animals still be sick without an aspect with immense consequences for human and veterinary medicine! us knowing? Or couldn’t animals It’s a global problem as well, because antibiotic-resistant become infected during transport despite excellent internal bacteria cross borders and continue spreading from person and external biosecurity? Sometimes bacteria and viruses to person, from animal to animal, from animal to people, via literally ‘blow in’, such as Mycoplasma and PRRSv. food and the environment. The participants in the EU-conference in Amsterdam listened Combatting antibiotic resistance is one of the most important to the arguments presented by Schippers and Van Dam. It challenges for health care and livestock breeding. Despite was agreed that good (preventive) diagnostics would be one the seriousness of the situation, it took several years before of the key elements to achieve a reduction in antibiotic use the first measures to reduce antibiotic use were taken. In from now on. In other words, proper and prompt monitoring 2006, the European Union was the first to forbid the use of of animal health. And that is something that BioChek has antibiotics in animal feed. This resolution was signed in 2015 preferred working on since its establishment in 1997. We by 46 of the 195 countries in the world. And recently the work together with you, veterinarians, laboratories, poultry FDA announced strict reduction measures, which will take and pig holdings, to raise animal health to a higher level effect in mid-2017 in America. People are paying attention to globally. If it were up to me, the level would be so high that the problem now. Fleming’s serendipitous discovery when he was cultivating Staphylococci would continue to be applied successfully for years to come.

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Aviagen’s new testing system means fewer false-positive Mycoplasma results Three years ago, the serum plate agglutination (SPA) test was Aviagen®’s gold standard for detecting Mycoplasma. The SPA test method produced excellent results for but had one disadvantage; it regularly produced false-positive results for Mycoplasma Synoviae (Ms). The false positive meant additional testing and more work and was reason enough for the veterinary team at Aviagen to seek out an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test as an alternative. The search ultimately ended with the Mycoplasma gallisepticum-synoviae (Mg/Ms) Combined Antibody ELISA test kit from BioChek.

viagen is the world’s leading poultry breeding company, providing premier breeding stock to chicken producers on virtually every continent under the Arbor Acres®, Indian River® and Ross® brand names. With global corporate headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama, the company has a number of wholly owned operations across the United Kingdom, Europe, Turkey, Latin America, India, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., as well as joint ventures in Asia. Dual-breeding programs in the U.S. and U.K. ensure the security and integrity of

Eric Jensen of Aviagen

the company’s exclusive brands. Eric L. Jensen, DVM, MAM, dACPV joined Aviagen North America in 1995 and became vice president of Veterinary Services in September 2015. In this position he is responsible for ensuring the health and welfare of the poultry and for the biosecurity programs used by Aviagen. “I work together with my team of veterinarians, microbiologists and the two diagnostic laboratories where ELISA kits from BioChek are in common use. Our laboratories are accredited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and are authorized to

BioChek, SMART Veterinary Diagnostics

monitor the health of our flocks and ensure conformance with the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP). Therefore, our products meet the strictest international health standards and may be exported worldwide,� says Jensen.

Damaging Mycoplasma disease

One of the diseases for which Aviagen tests flocks every two or three weeks is Mycoplasma. In chickens, the disease is caused by Mg and Ms and can result in considerable economic damage. Mycoplasma can lead to slower growth, lower egg production and poorer egg quality in laying flocks. In case of infection, primary breeders are required to depopulate flocks. “Fortunately, we have not had a Mycoplasma-infected flock in more than seven years thanks to Aviagen’s robust biosecurity program. However, we will continue our intensive monitoring program to verify our freedom from this disease. The test programs that we use are mandated by the NPIP. The NPIP prescribes the sample type, sampling frequency and test methodology,� explains Jensen.

Ms strains have been identified that can be difficult to detect serologically. During the research trial it became apparent that some ELISA test kits had difficulty detecting one of the challenge strains used in the study. However, the ELISA test kit from BioChek did identify both strains. The trial data also demonstrated that the BioChek ELISA kit detects positive results on serological exams at least as early (seven to nine days post infection) and in some cases earlier than the SPA test.

The result: Fewer false positives and efficient data delivery

Aviagen has been satisfactorily using the Mg/Ms ELISA kit from BioChek for three years now, according to Jensen. “The test results have been extremely accurate, with a considerably lower number of false positive results than with the SPA test. When we started using the Mg/Ms ELISA kit, we had just 1.4 percent false-positive results. After consulting with the BioChek technical support team a few adjustments

Drawbacks of SPA

Before Aviagen started using the Mg/Ms ELISA kit from BioChek, the flocks were monitored with the serum plate agglutination test. “We had worked with the SPA test for many years. While the SPA is an adequate method, the procedure is labor-intensive and all generated data requires manual entry into our laboratory information management system. In addition, we were regularly confronted with positive results for Ms that later turned out to be falsepositive. These faulty results required costly additional testing and unnecessary work. For us, this was sufficient reason to look for another test method: ELISA test,� continues Jensen.

Improved Sensitivity

One of the companies Aviagen approached in seeking an alternative test method was BioChek. “In our discussions with BioChek we explained that we had always been convinced that a SPA test was more sensitive and would detect Ms earlier than an ELISA test but would be open to a trial that demonstrated otherwise. Our interest prompted BioChek to conduct a research trial,� relates Jensen. In this trial, a research institute conducted a challenge study using two strains of Ms. The study compared the results between the SPA test and the ELISA tests from three manufacturers producing kits licensed by the USDA for use in poultry. The important questions were how early would the various test kits detect Ms-infected chickens and was there a difference in the sensitivity of the various assays in detecting chickens infected with the different strains of Ms. Different

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“In addition, the test results are highly consistent. Furthermore, because the results are automatically uploaded, efficiency is added to our process, which saves us a lot of work.”

were made and this figure has dropped to 0.7 percent. In addition, the test results are highly consistent. Furthermore, because the results are automatically uploaded, efficiency is added to our process, which saves us a lot of work. With Mycoplasma, the antibody level is not as important as early detection of infection. However, this situation is different when processing and analyzing the test results of other diseases such as Newcastle disease, infectious bursal disease or infectious bronchitis. Thanks to the Mg/Ms ELISA kit, software and the data management systems of BioChek, we can consult the test results quickly, have confidence in their accuracy and most importantly, gain rapid insight into the effectiveness of our vaccination programs. Monitoring the health of breeding flocks has top priority for Aviagen, and that’s why an accurate and efficient disease-detection system is of utmost importance to us as a company.�

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BioChek, Reeuwijk, the Netherlands Tel.: +31 (0) 182 582 592 Fax: +31 (0) 182 599 360 E-mail: info@biochek.com Website: www.biochek.com BioChek, SMART Veterinary Diagnostics

Welcome to the World of BioChek The complete BioChek package for veterinary diagnostics of poultry and swine diseases is used virtually all over the world. With its head office in the Netherlands, an R&D department and production facility in the United Kingdom, a USDA licensed facility in America and numerous distributors, BioChek is able to assist the poultry and swine industries in perfecting health and improving welfare and productivity of animals.

Would you like more information on BioChek or to work together on animal health? Then please contact us. After all, reliable veterinary diagnostics start with BioChek! For more information, please visit our website: