Laboratory capacity for diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease in Eastern Africa: implications for the progressive control pathway.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Accurate diagnosis is pertinent to any disease control programme. If Eastern Africa is to work towards control of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) using the Progressive Control Pathway for FMD (PCP-FMD) as a tool, then the capacity of national reference laboratories (NRLs) mandated to diagnose FMD should match this task. This study assessed the laboratory capacity of 14 NRLs of the Eastern Africa Region Laboratory Network member countries using a semi-structured questionnaire and retrospective data from the World Reference Laboratory for FMD annual reports and Genbank® through National Centre for Biotechnology Information for the period 2006-2010.

Results

The questionnaire response rate was 13/14 (93%). Twelve out of the 13 countries/regions had experienced at least o

SUBMITTER: Namatovu A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3562503 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature