QIAGEN and British Veterinary Laboratories Agency Expand Partnership in Veterinary Testing

11-09-2009: QIAGEN announced an expansion of its strategic partnership with the United Kingdom’s Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA). Under the terms of the agreement, QIAGEN has received the exclusive rights to commercialize three new PCR-based tests for the detection of widespread bacterial diseases in horses. Financial details have not been disclosed. The new tests developed with and validated by the VLA target three different common bacterial infections: Streptococcus equi, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The first target Streptococcus equi is the primary cause of strangles, a respiratory based infection leading to weight loss, swellings, and abscesses, with mortality rates of up to 10 percent. It is one of the most widespread diseases in horses and can persist for several months, thereby leading to severe negative economic impacts incurring from treatment costs and limited activity levels. Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa cause Equine metritis (EM), an infection of the genital tract of mares usually passed on through sexual contact. The disease is highly contagious and is detrimental to fertility. This poses a major problem for thoroughbred breeders who are required to have their mares bred by live cover.

“QIAGEN has proven to be a reliable and valuable partner with strong sales channels and a global marketing reach”, said Andrew Soldan, Commercial Programme Manager at the VLA. “We’re looking forward to expanding our collaboration in order to help provide international veterinary testing laboratories access to these advanced technologies and therewith effectively fight some of the most dangerous and costly animal diseases.”