The new inspections RE SEARCH 12 AIMING FOR A CENTRAL ROLE IN ALL OF NORTHERN EUROPE The cubes for the brown and ring rot tests follow a different route from that of the Erwinia virus. The NAK still analyses them with the traditional IF testing method. Although bacterial diseases can already be shown with DNA technology such as PCR, the European Union has not yet given the green light to use it for official testing purposes. The NAK hopes that approval will be granted shortly, because that will mean that they can discontinue the separate sample removal from the tubers. The tops, which the laboratory technicians now only test for virus and Erwinia, can then also be used for the brown and ring rot tests. That saves a lot of work and money. ● Leo Hanse The NAK made the complete switch this year from Elisa to PCR mainly because the time was ripe, Manager of Operations Ton Stolte explains. ‘Four years ago, we already had PCR, but it was still too expensive then to use it on a large scale. Because of the arrival of new peripheral equipment such as the pipetting robot, the possibility of combining 50 tops and including the virus and Erwinia test with that of brown and ring rot, we could start using PCR routinely. We’ve taken this on with a minimum of delay, because we’d like to have a pioneer’s role in this field of research. We currently still work mainly for the Dutch market. However, we’re also quite ready to play a central role in all of Northern Europe, for example, by working as the EU reference laboratory in collaboration with the NVWA (Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority). The NAK is already carrying out assignments for Denmark, Norway and Germany.’ Furthermore, the NAK wants to develop more as a knowledge centre and also make its advanced laboratory available to the sector in the summer months, when there are fewer samples coming in. ‘For example, our laboratory and greenhouse complex is excellently-suited to carrying out marker-directed breeding programmes’, said Ton Stolte. No price rise According to Stolte, our customers will notice the advantages of the renewed analysis immediately. The most noticeable is the speed at which the results for virus and Erwinia now become known. They are now available within three weeks after the inspector came to take the samples. That is a time gain of five weeks as compared to previous years. ‘And all for the same price,’ Stolte emphasises. ‘It shouldn’t become more expensive and we don’t expect that to happen. If we’re able to automate even further, for example, by using even more advanced robot technology, the inspections might actually become cheaper in future. As DNA technology is still in its infancy, technological innovations are following each other at a very fast tempo. We’d come to the end of the road with the Elisa method. It was no longer possible to improve on that. We’re therefore very happy that we can cut costs even more.’ Advertising for customers across the border Thanks to the new technology, it will soon also be possible to mail parts of tubers and offer them for testing. By also fast-freezing them, the samples can be sent from far away at reasonable transport costs. That is why the NAK is already very busy advertising for customers across the border. What also plays a role here is that there is currently a process in Europe whereby European reference laboratories are being designated for various specialised testing. In order to play a role in this, you have to be in the vanguard, according to Stolte, and for that purpose the NAK has chosen the research station in Emmeloord. Potato World 2014 • number 1 21 Pagina 20
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