A multiple real-time fluorescent test reagent kit was successfully developed for testing H5, H7 and H9 subgroups of the bird flu virus in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, according to the appraisal team for the new test approach.

Dubbed RT-PCR, the reagent kit is able to test three subgroups of avian influenza viruses simultaneously, instead of only one subgroup at a time in the past, said Tian Bo, academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and head of the appraisal team.

This is believed to be the first time in the world that a reagent kit was developed to test more than one subgroup of the bird flu virus simultaneously.

Experts from the appraisal team held that the test reagent kit is efficient and easy to use. It is suitable for poultry quarantine, human disease control and epidemiological investigation.

Avian influenza, or bird flu, is a severe infectious disease of waterfowl and poultry that has jumped to humans. It causes severe disease and death in people because human immune systems have little experience with it and thus no defense against it.

Blessed with a dense water network, Shenzhen is a transient home to migrant birds and a major supplier of live poultry for the adjacent Hong Kong.

As early as in August 2002, the local quarantine bureau began to employ the fluorescent RT-PCR test approach to examine poultry to be supplied to Hong Kong, and it took about four hours to get the test result.

To lower the test cost and raise test efficiency, researchers from the bureau have worked with their fellows from the Shenzhen Taitai Gene Co., Ltd. for three months to develop a new-type fluorescent RT-PCP reagent kit.

The scientific outcome, with independent patent, has met the world standards, according to Liu Shengli, head of the local entry and exit quarantine bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2004)