No diagnostics, no disease control

Diagnosis is the first line of disease control, followed by treatment and management and once again diagnosis to monitor the success of the treatment. The same applies to prevention strategies, where diagnosis is conducted on a large scale through epidemiological studies, then prevention measures such as vaccinations and quarantines are applied. The success of prevention strategies is further monitored using diagnostic techniques. Observation of clinical signs and symptoms for any animal or human infection serves as the first step of a diagnosis. For laboratory diagnosis, microscopy remains the mainstay of diagnostic techniques. Serological assays that detect antibodies from plasma samples are also serving as routine diagnostic techniques especially for large-scale screening. The advent of DNA technology has revolutionised diagnostics, as DNA-based diagnostic assays are more specific and highly sensitive in order to detect infectious agents in humans and animals. My diagnostic research projects have focused on the adoption of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the diagnosis of various pathogens. As a result, together with various collaborators, I have developed DNA-based LAMP and PCR assays targeting specific gene fragments for the diagnosis of various animal and human diseases, including trypanosomosis, theileriosis, babesiosis, toxoplasmosis, Newcastle disease, bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis.