BSE: Science & research - TSE Diagnostics - Collection of tissues: for the development and validation of diagnostic tests
Defra recognises the importance of having appropriate resources to be able to develop and validate new diagnostic tests. A considerable amount of Defra funding has been used to gather tissues and fluids from naturally and experimentally-infected animals for addition to the TSE Tissue Archive. The archive is maintained by the VLA and is the largest and most comprehensive store of TSE material in the world. The distribution of tissues is overseen by the Independent Archive Advisory Group (IAAG) which is composed of independent TSE experts from the UK and other European countries.
Tissue material is deposited from the following experiments:
- BSE challenges in cattle (for example project SE1736).
- BSE challenges in sheep (for example, project SE1946).
- Naturally infected classical scrapie in sheep (for example, project SE0230).
- Scrapie-free sheep (for example, project SE1931).
The Institute for Animal Health also administers a TSE Resource Centre (funded by the BBSRC and supported by the MRC) that collects stores and distributes a range of TSE-relevant materials, from antibodies to infective materials.
Page last modified: 14 February, 2008