The Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA)-ILRI Hub held a one week training workshop from March 1st- 5th on the bovine gamma interferon immunoassay of Mycobacterium bovis (the BOVIGAM assay). The training was attended by a total of four participants. From Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania were Richard Simon Mwakapuja, a PhD student in the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Public Health and Zachariah Ephraim Makondo also another PhD student.  From Eduardo Mondlane University were Jorge Maria Baptista, an attached Lecturer at the Faculty of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases and Adelina da Conceicao Machado, an Assistant Lecturer in Food Safety and Technology at the Veterinary Faculty.

The training was funded by GERAFT project whose aim was to harmonize the use of this technique in the countries involved in their projects. The training began with a cattle sampling exercise at the ILRI Kapiti Ranch before proceeding to the BecA-ILRI Hub where the laboratory training was conducted by Mr Alias Awino, a research technician with the ILRI Biotechnology Theme. 

Background:  Mycobacterium bovis is a disease that is widespread in Africa and greatly affects livestock and wildlife alike. Investigations of the epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis in Africa have been hampered by the poor performance of tests in the field and there is an urgent need for reliable and practical methods of TB diagnosis. Bovigam is a gamma interferon immunoassay which is used to conduct an in vitro blood based assay of cell-mediated immunity to M. bovis PPD tuberculin to detect bovine tuberculosis infection. Tuberculin PPD is presented to lymphocytes in whole blood culture. Production of gamma interferon from cells is then detected using a monoclonal antibody sandwich ELISA. Lymphocytes of animals which are free from M. bovis infection will not be stimulated to produce gamma interferon by M. bovis PPD tuberculin. 

PARTICIPANTS

Jorge Maria Baptista - attached Lecturer at the Faculty of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique

Adelina da Conceicao Machado - Assistant Lecturer in Food Safety and Technology at the Veterinary Faculty of the Eduardo Modlane University, Mozambique

Zachariah Ephraim Makondo - a Veterinary Research Officer/PhD. Student, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania.

Richard Simon Mwakapuja - a PhD student in the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Public Health, at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania.