Along with the launch of the Brucella FPA test, Prionics introduces a new instrument - the Sentry100^TM. The Sentry100^TM is a mobile instrument that will allow veterinarians to analyze an animal's health status immediately in the field. This will eliminate the need for time consuming sample transfers to a lab that often takes hours or even days. Quite literally, the Sentry100^TM will turn a cow or sheep paddock into a laboratory.

The Sentry100^TM is a single well, fluorescent polarization instrument that has been developed by
Prionics' partner Diachemix LLC. The portable instrument contains all necessary optics, electronics and computing appropriate for performing tests on site as well as in laboratory settings.
The testing procedure is straightforward: blood is taken from the animal, the blot clot removed and the resulting serum is ready for testing. The Sentry100^TM first reads the background of the sample and then after addition of the tracer (= a Brucella specific antigen), a second reading will provide the value of the sample. The quantitative status of the sample - i.e. are Brucella specific antibodies present or not - is determined by the previously established cutoff value.

Validation in Argentina
The instrument is currently being applied in Argentina, home to 55 Million cattle, where a validation study for Brucella FPA has been organized by the INTA Castelar Reference Laboratory. A panel of more than 4'000 cattle sera and whole blood samples collected in different regions of Argentina has been analyzed over the past six months using the Sentry100^TM.
Dr Luis Samartino, head of the Reference Laboratory comments: "The study is close to being completed and the results look very promising. A successful outcome of the validation study will smooth the way towards an official approval of the Brucella FPA as a new method for Brucella testing in this country in the near future."

Solutions for high throughput testing in microtiter plates in the laboratory are currently in development.