Pen-side testing

摘要

Pen-side diagnostic testing is often required to provide real time information about the health status of an animal or herd. The rapid results are generally needed in the face of a disease outbreak where the diagnostician/clinician is presented with dead or dying animals. Another use of pen-side tests is as part of a preventive medicine/herd health programme, where the information can be used for determining pathogen incidence and prevalence in the herd, identifying potential carrier animals or evaluating subtle changes in overall herd health as a result of management changes. Still another area is as a part of health certification before sale or stocking, or during processing following slaughter. Advanced testing methods, which in the past were only appropriate for use in a laboratory setting, have now been formatted for use in the field.