Nuclear applications in diagnosis and treatment can lead to control and eradication
As was shown with the Rinderpest campaign, progressive control and eradication of transboundary diseases requires action at national and international levels. It is critical to develop and apply suitable techniques and strategies for early and rapid disease diagnosis and surveillance, by implementing validated guidelines and standards in control programmes. The lack of rapid diagnostic systems normally results in an uncontrolled disease spread, affecting local and regional producers and substantially increases the expenses for control efforts such as vaccination and verification of the disease free status.
Immunoassays and molecular techniques. The latest generation of molecular diagnostic technologies offers unparalleled detection and discrimination methodologies which are vital for the sensitive detection and identification of pathogens. They are designed to allow a rapid and reliable diagnosis at the farm site, helping veterinary authorities, extension services and farmers to control and eradicate disease outbreaks that impair animal health and productivity.
- Nuclear and nuclear-related immunoassays and molecular techniques provide sensitive, robust, specific and rapid results, and offer significant advantages over conventional biological methods such as complement fixation tests or culture techniques and offer the possibility of point-of-care applications.
- Isotopes are used as markers to label protein and nucleic acid molecules, enabling specific and sensitive detection and characterization of harmful pathogens, as implemented in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which multiplies a single pathogen gene to millions of exact copies in a short time, allowing easy detection of only a few pathogens in a sick animal; and the enzymelinked immuno-sorbent assays (ELISAs) that analyse serum to assess disease status through the rapid testing of thousands of samples at a time, which is vital in disease surveillance and for export certification.
Attenuated vaccines. Vaccination, one of humanity’s greatest achievements, facilitates the eradication of serious, life-threatening diseases of both humans and animals. Apart from their efficacy in maintaining animal health and productivity, vaccines can have other significant impacts in a society that increasingly demands accountability from farmers and food processors as to the quality of their livestock products and their freedom from the contamination of drugs and chemicals. The Joint FAO/IAEA Division is working to develop new attenuated vaccines by using controlled doses of gamma irradiation against pathogens where vaccines do not currently exist, such as liver fluke, sleeping sickness or Rift Valley fever, or do not confer sufficient protection such as foot-andmouth disease or brucellosis. The recent successful development of an irradiated vaccine for malaria in humans has demonstrated the feasibility of this technique and indicated that technical problems can be overcome using up-to-date knowledge.
