Diagnostic units

Veterinary Epidemiology Centre (VEC)

The Veterinary Epidemiology Centre was established at Chennai. The Centre is the nodal centre for all activities related to the Animal Disease Intelligence Units and Poultry Disease Diagnostic Laboratories.

• The Veterinary Epidemiology Centre co-ordinates the Disease Diagnostic activities of the Animal Husbandry sector of the State through ADIUs and PDDLs.
• Undertake investigation during disease outbreaks to provide inputs and remedial measures to the Animal Disease Intelligence units of the State to control the spread of various livestock and poultry Diseases.
• The Unit undertakes Bi-annual inspection of the private poultry farms along with members of special committee the Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, to check and verify compartmentalization regulations against Avian Influenza to ensure that the compartmentalised farms / establishments have adhered to the principles of compartmentalization prescribed by World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) and maintains all mandatory bio security and bio safety standards in their Farms.
• The VEC coordinates the testing of stud bulls maintained in the departmental frozen semen production stations along with a team of scientists to ensure that the frozen semen straws intended for Artificial insemination are distributed from disease free herd.
• Monitoring of vaccination work in the districts.

Animal Disease Intelligence Units (ADIU)

The Animal Disease Intelligence units are functioning in 31 Districts and are involved in disease diagnosis, surveillance and attending to disease outbreaks immediately on receipt of information.

• The ADIUs collect samples for laboratory diagnosis from affected animals as well as following post-mortem, conduct tests for diagnosis of certain diseases.
• ADIUs send collected samples from ailing and dead animals to other laboratories for further confirmatory diagnosis.
• The ADIUs further attempts to trace the reasons for the outbreak, which will assist in controlling the spread of the disease and prevent outbreaks in future.
• Endemic charts are prepared to know the prevalence of a disease and to forecast for undertaking prophylactic vaccination.
• The ADIUs attend mass contact programs and Special Livestock Health camps for spot diagnosis of diseases.
• ADIUs visit slaughter houses and collect samples to rule out the possibility of spread of zoonotic diseases.
• The ADIUs undertakes periodical visits to Government and private farms for monitoring the health of livestock and poultry.
• The ADIUs are entrusted with the task of collecting pre and post serum samples for Foot and Mouth disease, PPR and Post serum samples for Brucellosis, to assess efficacy of vaccine and immunity levels under various central sector schemes.

Poultry Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (PDDL)

Poultry Disease Diagnostic Laboratories are functioning in 3 Districts viz., Erode, Namakkal and Tiruppur are catering to the needs of the poultry farmers in the State especially intensive poultry rearing belts.

• PDDLs assist in diagnosing various poultry diseases by collecting samples of droppings, blood samples etc., for testing of various viral diseases, bacterial infections and parasitic infestations, by conducting post mortem and suggest prompt preventive measures for controlling the prevailing disease as well as emerging diseases.
• These labs undertake periodical visits to the poultry units and render advice on managemental practices.
• Sale of poultry vaccines for timely control of poultry diseases is also undertaken by these units.
• The PDDLs at Namakkal and Erode are Bio safety level II (BSL-II) compliant labs and they carry out preliminary screening for Low pathogenic avian influenza.
• A laboratory for testing of feed and water analysis has been established in Palladam, Tiruppur district.