Glanders

APHA is a National reference laboratory for Glanders which is a contagious zoonotic bacterial disease, predominantly affecting horses, mules and donkeys. Glanders is caused by the bacterium Burkholderia mallei.

Glanders is endemic in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America. It has been eradicated from North America, Australia, and most of Europe through surveillance and destruction of affected animals, and import restrictions. Glanders is classified as an exotic notifiable disease in the UK, which means any suspected case must be reported to APHA by law.

Due to similar clinical features to other diseases, such as Strangles, EVA, Fungal Pneumonia, Ulcerative Lymphangitis, Pseudotuberculosis, Epizootic Lymphangitis, diagnosis of Glanders would need be confirmed by serological assay and/or specific identification of the causative agent.

The Complement Fixation Test (CFT) for Glanders is currently the only World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) prescribed serodiagnostic method for international trade purposes and is also recommended for surveillance investigations.

Our Glanders reagents are manufactured in a dedicated Production Unit certified to ISO 9001 quality standards, and supported by expert veterinarians in our reference laboratory. To ensure consistency across different CFT kits, our products are tested against 2 common CFT antigens. For safety considerations, those antisera were raised using non-infectious materials. We recommend the use of both high and low titre positive serum to ensure sensitivity and consistency of CFT tests.

To support your laboratory with testing APHA Scientific offer the following control reagents:

RAB8678 – Glanders Equine High Positive Antiserum

Equine sera positive to Burkholderia mallei by Glanders complement fixation test. This antiserum is to be used as a high titre positive control antiserum for the Glanders CFT.

RAB8677 – Glanders Equine Low Positive Antiserum

Equine sera positive to Burkholderia mallei by Glanders complement fixation test. This antiserum is to be used as a low titre positive control antiserum for the Glanders CFT.

RAB8676 – Glanders Equine Negative Sera

Equine sera negative to Burkholderia mallei by the Glanders complement fixation test.

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