Viral Testing Core

The Viral Testing Core, administratively located in the Division of Microbiology, provides diagnostic services to the Division of Veterinary Medicine for establishing and maintaining SPF nonhuman primate colonies. It also offers research support to investigators. The core performs all screening assays onsite, which has reduced costs and turnaround times, eliminated sample shipping, and allowed for easy expansion of detection capabilities. The core participates in proficiency panels from the Pathogen Detection Working Group (PDWG) of the NIH Nonhuman Primate Research Consortium (NHPRC) and the External Quality Assurance Program Oversight Laboratory (EQAPOL) Luminex program to ensure quality assurance. The core's aim is to assure the SPF status of the colony through continued viral testing of existing breeding colony animals and all offspring. All animals in the SPF4 colony are tested a minimum of twice each year for Type D simian retrovirus (SRV), simian T-lymphotropic virus (STLV), simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), and herpes B virus (BV). The core also develops and uses additional assays for other pathogens of potential interest.