Public Service:

The rapid diagnostic kit for vesicular stomatitis virus developed by the ILMB has been adopted by both the Canadian Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture for standard diagnosis of vesicular diseases. This inexpensive method of testing by ELISA kit now makes it possible to distinguish vaccinated from naturally-infected animals, allowing better epidemiological tracking and export of vaccinated animals. A kit for rinderpest has been developed by similar techniques, and is currently being field tested in Ethiopia and Kenya. This advance in diagnosis will aid in eliminating rinderpest from endemic areas of Africa and Asia.