Head of Department – PhD, Olena Valeriivna Lozhkina

Telephone: (044)377-53-83,

е-mail: pat1@vetlabresearch.gov.ua

The structure of the department includes a laboratory for the diagnosis of prion infections.

Head of Lab – Viktor Stanislavovych Baranov

The main areas of work of the department: diagnostic, organizational and scientific work.

The Department is accredited in accordance with the requirements of DSTU EN ISO/IEC 17025:2019 on indicators of diagnosis of infectious diseases and diseases of non-communicable aetiology of animals, poultry and fish. Tests are carried out by generally accepted pathomorphological methods (pathoanatomical, histological) and immunohistochemical, analytical, and express methods (immunographic, Western blot, enzymatic immunoadsorption and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), determination of the tetracycline biomarker in the teeth of wild carnivores (by luminescent microscopy) upon citizens’ request, in the framework of state monitoring.

• Pathological examinations include pathological autopsy of animal carcasses, examination of isolated organs.
• Histological examinations are performed to diagnose infectious diseases (bacterial, viral, prion), mycoses, parasitic diseases, metabolic diseases, tumor verification.
• Microstructural analysis of ingredients makes it possible to determine the actual composition and establish the quality of raw materials used in semi-finished and finished meat products, to detect falsification of food products from meat raw materials, including meat.
• Research on prion infections is carried out for diagnosis of spongiform encephalopathy and scrapie by express methods of the following test format: Prionics®-Check Westrn and Prionics®-Check PrioSTRIP, IDEXX HerdChek BSE Antigen, EIA & HerdChek BSE-Scrapie Antigen, Roboscreen Beta Prion BSE EIA;

Tests of feeds and compound feeds for animals using analytical method, which makes it possible to detect the presence of components of animal origin (down, feathers, bones) in feed samples, to identify meat, blood, feather or fish meal from meat and bone . The advantage of the method is the ability to detect a meager number of components of animal origin (less than 0.1%), depending on the origin of these components (very important for forensic veterinary examination).

• Determination of the biomarker tetracycline in the teeth of wild carnivores is carried out to monitor the effectiveness of oral immunization of wild carnivores against rabies by detecting the biomarker tetracycline in the histological section of the canines of wild carnivores.

Accredited methods

• Identification of a complex of pathological and anatomical changes;
• Detection of a complex of morphological changes using histological method;
• Detection of pathological prion by Western blotting;
• Detection of pathological prion by immunochromatographic method;
• Detection of pathological prion by immunohistochemical method;
• Detection of changes specific for prion infections using histological method;
• Detection of pathological prion by enzymatic immunoadsorption;
• Detection of pathological prion by ELISA;
• Identification of components (ocnstituents) of animal origin, analytical method;
• Determination of tetracycline biomarker in carnivorous teeth.

Research Pathomorphological Department is accredited as a provider of proficiency testing in accordance with DSTU EN ISO/IEC 17043:2017. It organizes and conducts interlaboratory comparative tests to verify the qualification “VET-TEST”.

Scientific and methodical work:

• Advanced training and education of veterinarians-pathomorphologists on pathomorphological diagnosis of diseases of infectious and non-communicable aetiology, organizes and conducts professional testing for laboratories of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection and other laboratories; manufacturing and providing control samples to verify the professional suitability of pathologists.
• The main direction of research work on the initiative topic is “Development of a system for laboratory diagnosis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in Ukraine”.