Indian Lab to use PCR Machine |
29 Jan 2008 |
| The Department of Animal Husbandry in India is setting up a laboratory with all the latest facilities for inspecting and certifying meat and marine products at Kochi. The current laboratory and all it's equipment, which was functioning at Ernakulum, was moved to a building in the Agriculture Urban Wholesale Market at Maradu two years back. The modernisation activities were taken up with a Central assistance of Rs.3 crore.
The new laboratory consists in the main part of two divisions — Bio-chemistry and Microbiology. Molecular biology, virology and mycology constitute the microbiology division. It will have facilities for the testing of chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals, minerals, mycotoxins and levels of antibiotics in food materials. The admissible quantity is ascertained and certificates issued. An atomic absorption spectrophotometer is used for assessing the presence of heavy metals and minerals, whereas gas chromatography is employed for pesticides, mycotoxin and vitamins. Biogenic amines are scanned using high-performance liquid chromatography. Modern equipment like reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction machine (RTPCR) and thermal cycle is used for detecting the presence of bacteria and virus. This laboratory was originally envisaged to certify products for export. In future, the public can get the following facilities. All food items for domestic consumption can be examined and certified. Disease-affected prawns, shrimp and other fishes can be diagnosed. |
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