Eureka test can detect at-risk poultry

European Union research

network Eureka has developed a simple, fast and easy test to check the vulnerability of poultry to

infection, using molecular markers to secure data from blood samples in two days.

Current immunity tests are

imprecise, expensive and take weeks - too late to be useful in the fast breeding and slaughtering world of broiler production.

Eureka says that the tests can be carried out using equipment already widely available in laboratories.

They can warn producers than flocks may have weak immune systems and so could experience secondary infections, enabling them to use immune-system boosting drugs to boost welfare and meat quality.

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