Biotechnology-based Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases in Veterinary Medicine
OIE Collaborating Centre Reports
Activities in 2011
Title of Collaborating Centre: / Biotechnology-based Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases in Veterinary MedicineAddress of Collaborating Centre / Joint Virology Research and Development Division, National Veterinary Institute (SVA)
and
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Travvägen 22, 751 89 Uppsala,
SWEDEN
Tel.: / +46 18 674000
Fax: / +46 18 674467
e-mail address: / 1:
2:
3:
website: / www.sva.se/oie-cc
Name of Director of Institute (Responsible Official): / SVA: Professor Anders Engvall,
DG of SVA
SLU: Professor Leif Norrgren,
Head of BVF
Name (including Title and Position) of Head of the Collaborating Centre (formally OIE Contact Point): / Professor Sándor Belák
Name (including Title and Position) of writer of this report
(if different from above) / Dr Karl Ståhl and Prof. Sándor Belák
Summary of activities specifically related to the mandate of
OIE Collaborating Centres
1. Activities as a centre of research, expertise, standardisation and dissemination of techniques within the remit of the mandate given by the OIE
During 2008 the OIE Biological Standard Commission accepted a request to extend our mandate as an OIE Collaborating Centre at the National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala to include the Swedish University of Veterinary Science (SLU) as a partner, as indicated in the letter of the 3 October 2008, signed by Dr Bernard Vallat, Director General of the OIE.
The activities of the Collaborating Centre are managed by the OIE CC Board, which includes scientists from various departments of SVA and SLU. Board members 2011 are: Prof. Sándor Belák (chairman, director of OIE CC, SVA and SLU), Prof. Anders Engvall (Director General, SVA), Professor Leif Norrgren (Chairman, BVF, SLU), Dr. Anna Aspán (bacteriology, SVA), Dr Mikael Berg (virology, BVF, SLU), Dr. Viveka Båverud (bacteriology, SVA), Dr. Jean-Francois Valarcher (virology, immunobiology and parasitology, SVA), Dr. Mikael Juremalm (virology, SVA), and Dr. Karl Ståhl (scientific secretary of OIE CC, virology and molecular epidemiology, SVA and SLU).
Research in the frame of National and International projects
The Collaborating Centre is currently conducting research and training in a number of national and international (mainly EU) projects, which include tasks on the improvement of molecular and “on site” diagnostics, development of new methods for improved food safety, as well as the international harmonisation and standardisation of the diagnostic procedures. The work is performed at the Joint Virology Research and Development Division, at the National Veterinary Institute (SVA, http://www.sva.se/) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU, http://www.slu.se/), in close collaboration with the other departments at SVA. Further local collaborators are the Department of Pathology, SVA, Svanova Biotech AB, Olink AB, the Section of Clinical Virology, Department of Medical Sciences, as well as the Department of Genetics and Pathology/Molecular Medicine, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Internationally, the collaborators are the large consortia of ongoing EU projects, representing a very wide network of animal health issues over Europe and other continents. Relevant international industry collaborators include INGENASA, Madrid, Spain; Luminex Corp, Austin, Tx, US; OptiGene LTD, Horsham, UK; Tetracore Inc, Rockville MD, US; Prophyl Animal Health, Hungary, among others.
2. Proposal or development of any procedure that will facilitate harmonisation of international regulations applicable to the surveillance and control of animal diseases, food safety or animal welfare
No
3. Networking
a) Maintenance of a network with other OIE Collaborating Centres designated for the same specialty, and
The collaboration is active with our sister Collaborating Centre at IAEA in Vienna: the “OIE Collaborating Centre for ELISA and MolecularTechnologies in Animal Disease Diagnosis”, as seen by joint publications, joint organisation of trainings etc. For example a recent workshop organised by the two Centres in collaboration: Workshop on Classical and Molecular Veterinary Virology, Vienna, 28 Novenber-9 December 2011.
A process of twinning with the National Animal Disease Diagnostic and Epidemiology Centre (NADDEC) in Entebbe, Uganda has been initiated. Discussions with OIE on the way forward are ongoing.
b) Should the need arise, maintenance of a network with Collaborating Centres in other disciplines
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4. Placement of expert consultants at the disposal of the OIE
· Consultant expertise was provided to OIE, IAEA and FAO by regular change of information and by participation on meetings, see below.
· Previous chairmanship in the work of the OIE ad hoc Group on Biotechnology, Paris, France, regular meetings, preparation of recommendations and reports in biotechnology issues.
· Participation in the work of the European Platform for Global Animal Health, Brussels, Belgium, regular meetings, preparation of recommendations and reports in issues of Transboundary Animal Diseases.
· Participation in Technical Consultation in Support of the OIE Emerging Pandemic Threats Program activities - Paris, 25 - 27 January 2011.
· Participation in the work of the Animal Production and Health Section, FAO/IAEA Joint Division, IAEA, Vienna (sister Collaborating Centre, see above). Development of novel diagnostic methods, international standardisation and validation, providing SOPs to member countries, international training, e.g., the Workshop on Classical and Molecular Veterinary Virology, Vienna, 28 Novenber-9 December 2011.
· To review the chapter on “Application of biotechnology to the development of new and emerging diagnostic technologies” for the OIE Manual, review submitted in December 2011.
Areas of expertise
· Research, novel biotechnology-based techniques (e.g., microarrays, isothermal amplification, rapid sequencing) aimed for diagnostic use
· Diagnostic real-time PCR assays and novel tools of virus detection
· Detection of emerging “unknown” viruses, viral metagenomics
· Molecular epidemiology
· Laboratory automation, molecular diagnostics
· Quality assurance and validation of molecular assays
5. Provision of scientific and technical training, within the remit of the mandate given by the OIE, to personnel from OIE Member Countries
The laboratory provided training for scientists visiting from various countries to Uppsala. In addition, the laboratory housed prominent experts, in order to exchange ideas and improve the level of molecular diagnosis.
Joint organisation with FAO/IAEA, ESVV and several European FP6 and FP7 projects, of a workshop on Classical and Molecular Veterinary Virology to promote the application of classical virology and multiple pathogens detection methods in veterinary diagnostic laboratories of Africa, Asia and Central and Eastern European countries. The workshop, held in Vienna between November 28th and December 9th 2011, was designed for scientists from veterinary institutes, diagnostic laboratories and universities with moderate experience in classical and molecular virology. Well-recognized experts were invited for lectures on principles and applications of classical and molecular virology. Practical laboratory sessions on well established procedures that have been harmonized for virus detection and multiplication and viral diseases surveillance were provided. Number of participants: 20.
See: http://esvv.eu/?page=meetings&id=31
6. Organisation of scientific meetings on behalf of the OIE
An “OIE Collaborating Centre Symposium” was held at SVA in Uppsala, Sweden, in April 2011, focusing on the role and activities of our Collaborating Centre. Dr. Elisabeth Erlacher-Vindel was invited as representative from OIE. She summarised the relevant OIE activities and tasks and discussed the activities of our Collaborating Centre.
Our OIE Collaborating Centre is working in close collaboration with the European Society for Veterinary Virology (ESVV; http://esvv.eu). For the time being, the two organisations have the same chairman (SB). The OIE CC and ESVV activities are directly harmonised and the OIE CC activity will be emphasized and illustrated on the 9th International Congress of Veterinary Virology of ESVV, Madrid, 4-9 September 2012.
7. Coordination of scientific and technical studies in collaboration with other laboratories, organisations or collaborating centres
The Collaborating Centre is co-ordinator or partner in several ongoing EU projects. In the frame of these projects large international networks collaborate on development of new molecular diagnostic methods, international standardisation and validation (see www.sva.se/oie-cc for details, web site under updating).
Co-organiser (together with CISA-INIA, Madrid, Spain and IZSUM, Perugia, Italy) of international ring trial for molecular detection of African swine fever virus as part of EU FP7 project ASFRISK (www.asfrisk.eu ).
8. Publication and dissemination of any information within the remit of the mandate given by the OIE that may be useful to Member Countries of the OIE
PhD thesis
Jonas W: Borna Disease Virus and its Hosts- Studies on Virus-Host Interactions and Virus Detection. PhD Thesis, SLU, 2011.
Muhammad Munir: Immuno-Regulatory Dynamics of Non-Structural Protein 1 of Avian Influenza A Viruses: IFN-β, NF-κB and AP-1 Perspectives. PhD Thesis, SLU, 2011.
Articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals
Ronish, B., Hakhverdyan, M, Ståhl, K., Gallardo, C., Fernandez-Pinero, J., Belák, S., Leblanc, N., Wangh, L. 2011. Design and verification of a highly reliable Linear-After-The-Exponential PCR (LATE-PCR) assay for the detection of African swine fever virus. J Virol Methods. 172. 8-15. Already reported last year
Metreveli, G., Emmoth, E., Zohari, S., Bálint, A., Widén, F., Muradrasoli, S., Wallrgen, P., Belák, S., LeBlanc, N., Berg, M., Kiss, I.: Comparison of two H1N2 swine influenza A viruses from disease outbreaks in pigs in Sweden during 2009 and 2010. Virus Genes. 2011. 42. 236-44.
McKillen, J., McMenamy, M., Reid S.M., Duffy, C., Hjertner, B., King D.P., Belák, S., Welsh M., Allan, G.: Pan-Serotypic Detection of Foot and Mouth Disease Virus using a minor-groove binder probe reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assay. Journal of Virological Methods, 2011.174.117-119.
Xia, H., Wahlberg, N., Qiu, H.J., Widén, F., Belák, S, Liu, L.: Lack of phylogenetic evidence that the Shimen strain is the parental strain of the lapinized Chinese strain (C-strain) vaccine against classical swine fever. Arch Virol. 2011. 56.1041-1044.
Emmoth, E, Ottoson, J., Albihn, A., Belák, S., Vinnerås, B.: Ammonia disinfection of hatchery waste for elimination of single-stranded RNA viruses. Applied Environmental Microbiology, 2011.77. 3960-6.
Wensman, J.J., Ilbäck. C., Hjertström, E., Blomström, A.L., Gustavsson, M.H., Jäderlund, K.H., Ström-Holst, B., Belák, S., Berg, A.L., Berg, M.: 2011. Expression of interferon gamma in the brain of cats with natural Borna disease virus infection. Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 2011.141.162-167.
McMenamy, M.J., McKillen, J., Hjertner, B., Kiss, I., Yacoub, A., Leijon, M., Duffy, C., Belák, S., Welsh, M., Allan, G. 2011. Development and comparison of a Primer-Probe Energy Transfer based assay and a 5' conjugated Minor Groove Binder assay for sensitive real-time PCR detection of infectious laryngotracheitis virus. J Virol Methods. 2011. 175.149-55.
Liu, L., Xia, H., Everett, H., Sosan O, Crooke, H., Meindl-Böhmer, A., Qiu, H.J., Moennig, V., Belák, S., Widén, F.: 2011. A generic real-time TaqMan assay for specific detection of lapinized Chinese vaccines against classical swine fever. J Virol Methods. 2011. 175.170-174.
Munir, M., Zohari, S., Metreveli, G., Baule, C., Belák, S., Berg, M.: Alleles A and B non-structural protein 1 of avian influeza viruses differentially inhibit IFN-beta production in human and mink lung cells. J. Gen. Virol. 2011. 92. 2111-2121.
Widén, F., Vågsholm, I., Belák, S., Muradrasoli, S.: Achievement V - Methods for breaking the transmission of pathogens along the food chain. Detection of viruses in food. Trends in Food Science and Technology, 2011. X, 1-9.
Leijon, M., Ullman, K., Thyselius, S., Zohari, S., Pedersen, .J.C., Hanna, A., Mahmood, S., Banks, J., Slomka, M.J., Belák, S.: Rapid PCR-based molecular pathotyping of H5 and H7 avian influenza viruses. J. Clin. Microbiol. 2011. 49. 3860-73.
Abro, S.H., Renström, L.H., Ullman, K., Isaksson, M., Zohari, S., Jansson, D.S., Belák, S., Baule, C.: Emergence of novel strains of infectious bronchitis virus in Sweden. Vet. Microbiol. 2011 Sep 25. [Epub ahead of print]
Kautto, A.H., Alenius, S., Mossing, T., Becher, P., Belák, S., Larska, M.: Pestivirus and alphaherpesvirus infections in Swedish reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus L.). Vet Microbiol. 2011 Oct 20. [Epub ahead of print]
Xia, H., Vijayaraghavan, B., Belák, S., Liu, L.: Detection and identification of the atypical bovine pestiviruses in commercial foetal bovine serum batches. PLoS One. 2011;6(12):e28553. Epub 2011 Dec 8
Munir, M., Linde, A-M., Zohari, S, Ståhl, K., Baule, C., Engström B., Renström, L., and Berg, M (2011) Whole genome sequencing and characterization of a virulent Newcastle disease virus isolated from an outbreak in Sweden. Virus Genes, 43(2):261-71
Muhammad Munir, Siamak Zohari, Roland Suluku, Neil LeBlanc, Saidu Kanu, Francis A-R. Sankoh, Mikael Berg, Mohamed L Barrie and Karl Ståhl (2012) Report and genetic characterization of Peste des Petits Ruminants Virus from sheep and goats in Sierra Leone. EID. 1 (18) 193-195.
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/18/1/pdfs/11-1304.pdf
Matilda Brink, Karl Ståhl, Charles Masembe, Ademun Rose Okurut, Mikael Berg, Anne-Lie Blomström. (2012) First time molecular detection and phylogenetic relationships of Torque teno sus virus 1 and 2 in domestic pigs in Uganda: further evidence for a global distribution. Accepted Virology Journal
Proceedings 2011
Belák, S.: Molecular diagnostics and molecular epidemiology of viral diseases of swine. 20th Köves Days Congress of the Hungarian Society for Porcine Health, Budapest, Hungary, 5-6 May, 2011, Keynote lecture, prize ceremony
Lin, J., Nordér, H., Belák, S. and Widén, F.: Amplification of near complete Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) genome.7th Smögen Summer Symposium on Virology, Smögen, Sweden. August 18-20, 2011. Abstract and Poster.
Belák, S.: New trends in the molecular diagnostics of viral diseases, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, 26 October 2011, inauguration lecture as new member of the academy
Belák S.: Detection of unknown, emerging new pathogens – state of the art. The One Health Challenge - New and Re-emerging Zoonoses. Perugia, Italy, 17 November 2011, Keynote lecture
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Annual reports of OIE Reference Centres, 2011 5