Veterinarian expertise in Corona crisis

30-03-2020 | | |
PCR equipment at the Hipra research facility and at Royal GD in the Netherlands is being used for coronavirus tests. Photo: Hipra
PCR equipment at the Hipra research facility and at Royal GD in the Netherlands is being used for coronavirus tests. Photo: Hipra

To help deal with the current Corona health crisis, veterinarian organisations and companies are making their equipment and facilities available to health authorities. Poultry World reports on veterinarian expertise in the Covid-19 crisis.

In essence a virus is a virus, and it doesn’t really matter if it is a human or an animal bug. That means that expertise in the animal sector can easily be transferred to help in the current coronavirus crisis. And that is just what our sector is doing.

In hard hit Spain, animal health company Hipra is making part of its biotechnology facilities and equipment available to the health authorities. The veterinary pharmaceutical company is giving over its new laboratories to hospitals for the analysis of virus samples and offered her 3D printers for the manufacture the much needed ventilator equipment.

“As an Animal Health company, for us it is a duty and an act of responsibility to make use of all the resources that we have in order to help preserve public health in such exceptional times, hence the need to collaborate by giving over our new diagnostic centres,” – Hipra.

Royal GD – tests for covid-19

In the Netherlands animal health service Royal GD is on standby to enlarge the test capacity for covid-19. ‘’Virus testing is our day to day work and we have the most modern facilities to work in,” GD states. The health service continues: “We have a lot of experience with research into viruses. Normally, GD researches viruses in animals. But the principle of the research method is the same. For the covid-19 study, the test must be validated in humans. And we have done that recently. So now we are definitely ready.” To study the covid-19 virus, the patient’s saliva is examined using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) device. This method allows the genetic material of the virus to be detected. GD and our subsidiaries have a large number of PCR devices, with which we conduct hundreds of thousands of tests every year. For the covid-19 diagnostics, we expect to be able to perform up to 2000 tests per day.”

We will not be the laboratory that will find the coronavirus vaccine… If we can participate in an advance… ” – Ceva Santé Animale.

Ceva Santé Animale – studying covid-19 carefully

Committed to animal health and its repercussions on human health, the French Ceva Santé Animale laboratory is, in its own way, engaged in the fight against covid-19. “We will not be the laboratory that will find the coronavirus vaccine,” explains Marc Prikazsky in Sud Ouest newspaper, “but as in the context of animal health some of our researchers regularly work on coronaviruses, and that the boss of our research has worked for 5 years precisely on this type of virus, part of his team is studying covid-19 carefully. If we can participate in an advance… ”

Brockotter
Fabian Brockotter Editor in Chief, Poultry World





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