Ignacio López-Goñi, professor and microbiologist of the School of Medicine of the Universidad de Navarra and researcher of the Institute of Tropical Health (ISTUN), has given a seminar about the recent advances in diagnostic techniques and the molecular epidemiology of Brucella – the bacterial cause of Brucellosis, also known as Maltese Fever – in the Kazakh Scientific Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Diseases, in Almaty (Kazakhstan).

During the first week of September, Ignacio López-Goñi gave theoretical-practical clases there about the application of the __PCR ___technique for the detection and classification of Brucella.

The Kazakh Scientific Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Diseases has worked for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases of special relevance, like the plague, cholera, tularemia, Anthrax or brucellosis for more than 60 years. "The independence of Kazakhstan from the USSR in 1991 has been a great challenge for the country and also for it's educational system and research. Furthermore, for many years they have suspended campaigns for vaccination of animals against Brucellosis, which has created an increased number of cases of the disease, including in humans. For that reason, this research center, which functions as a central laboratory for brucellosis is working to implement improvements in the diagnosis and molecular detection of the bacteria." Explains the professor.

His stay also serves to share with the Kazakh center his field experience, accumulated through the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology and through the specific research line about Brucella which is developed in the Institute of Tropical Health of the Universidad de Navarra. In concrete, the expert is on board in the development and application of new molecular systems that permit the detection and distinction between different species of Brucella, including the vaccine strains, specifically for the needs of a country like Kazakhstan.