Development of improved analytical methods for use in animal health and in foodborne disease surveillance for source attribution

Considering the 'One Health' principles, the links between animal and human health are very strong. Both domestic and wild animals are sources of infectious agents that cause diseases in humans. Poor animal health may also indirectly affect human health, through reduced access to food. A large number of infectious diseases of animals, the transboundary animal diseases, spread rapidly across borders. Robust and accurate diagnostic assays are needed to detect the infectious agents rapidly and to limit their spread. A large arsenal of novel assays has been developed during the last three decades, with a tremendous impact on the detection of infectious agents. The new diagnostic methods are mostly laboratory-based and expensive, requiring sophisticated equipment and special skills. However, rapid and cheap field-based assays have also been developed. Herein, the authors give several examples of the development of novel assays, with special focus on the 'One Health' principles.

Search for DNA of exogenous mouse mammary tumor virus-related virus in human breast cancer samples

Earlier reports of a human exogenous retrovirus (HMTV) related closely to mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) led us to search for these viral sequences in breast cancer tissues and normal tissues. A real-time PCR was developed based on MMTV and published HMTV envelope sequences. The real-time PCR method can detect one to ten copies of MMTV target DNA. Tissue samples were collected prospectively from 18 breast cancer patients and 11 non-malignant control cases, as well as peripheral blood leukocytes from the same women. Despite the high sensitivity of the real-time PCR method used, none of the samples were positive for HMTV DNA or RNA. The absence of HMTV DNA in both breast cancer samples and controls indicates either that the concentration of putative HMTV DNA in the breast cancers was too low for detection or that it did not exist there.