Who should attend
The course is specifically designed for laboratory staff or managers using or wanting to use serological assays to assess the immune response of livestock after vaccination with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine.
Requirements and qualifications
Participants must work within a laboratory and have a basic understanding of serological and related techniques. The course is presented in English.
Course description
Using a set of post-vaccination sera, trainees will carry out virus neutralisation test (VNT) and a solid-phase competition ELISA (SPCE). By the end of the week, results for both the VNT and the ELISA will be compared with the goal of determining the serostatus of the animals from which the samples were collected. The course will provide guidance on how to establish these tests in trainee’s laboratory and will also outline the quality assurance steps needed to decrease variation and monitor the performance of these assays (with the support from the Pirbright Quality Assurance team). The use of these tests to support post vaccination monitoring studies and PD50/PPG vaccine potency studies will be discussed with the Pirbright team.
Learning outcomes
You will be able to:
- Set-up and demonstrate the VNT and SPCE - including when these assays should be used and what their advantages and limitations are.
- Implement the quality assurance needed to decrease variation and monitor the performance.
Next steps
Email your completed application form to anna.ludi@pirbright.ac.uk.