- Specialized diagnostic activity with different diagnostic methods (see below)
- Diagnostic approach in the case of outbreaks and definition of control procedures and guidelines for the eradication of the diseases in infected farms
- Legislative support for the Ministry of Health and Veterinary Regional Officers
- Capability of experimental trials (i.e., assessing vaccine potency and efficacy) in BL3 confinement animal facilities. In the laboratories and animal facilities of IZSLER, those rules and provisions given in chapter 1.1.4. “Biosafety and biosecurity: Standard for managing biological risk in the veterinary laboratory and animal facilities (version adopted in May 2015)“ of the “WOAH Manual of Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines for Terrestrial Animals” are applied.
IZSLER uses a Management Quality Control System for its services, aimed at giving reliable analytical results, based on the international UNI CEI EN ISO/IEC 17025 for accreditation of testing and calibration laboratories.
The adoption of such standards guarantees the technical competence and the impartiality of the laboratory in performing the analyses. This, indeed, becomes an element for the reciprocal recognition of the validity of the results at the international level.
Today, IZSLER is enrolled on the register of the Accredia (the national organisation recognised for the accreditation of testing and calibration laboratories) as n. 0148 and includes 17 locations and more than 1600 accredited methods. The list of accredited methods can be found here.
Most of Myxomatosis’s serological and virologic diagnosis methods have been developed “in-house” and then standardised and listed among accredited methods (Table 1).
Table 1: List of methods used to diagnose myxomatosis
| Name of the method | Scope | IZSLER Code | Method type |
| Immunofluorescence | Virologic diagnosis | NK 758 | Internal |
| Immunohistochemical methods | Virologic diagnosis | MP 07/003 | Internal |
| Cell culture isolation | Virologic diagnosis | MP 05/032 MP 05/032 H |
Internal |
| Immunoperoxidase | Virologic diagnosis | NK 2444 | Internal |
| Drop method – Negative staining Electron Microscopy | Diagnosis of viral agents | MP 05/002 | Internal |
| Ultracentrifugation method – Negative staining Electron Microscopy | MP 05/003 | Internal | |
| Immune-electron-microscopy (IEM) -Negative staining Electron Microscopy | Diagnosis and typing of viral agents | MP 05/023 | Internal |
| PCR1 | Virologic diagnosis | MP 09/146 | Internal |
| Real Time PCR | Virologic diagnosis | MP 09/194 | Internal |
| Total antibodies – MAbs2 based competitive ELISA – Ag protein m71L (kit IZS-BS) | Antibodies anti-myxomatosis | MP 04/052 | Internal |
1Different PCR protocols are available including those able to distinguish wild from vaccinal strains (SG33 and Borghi)
2Specific anti-myxomavirus MAbs were produced and preliminary characterized before their use in competitive ELISA