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In areas of Africa and the Indian subcontinent livestock carcasses are typically left out for
scavengers. Over the last few decades several species of vultures have exhibited sharp declines in numbers.
Diclofenac residues were discovered in the carcasses and implicated as a cause. Despite the introduction
of regulatory measures diclofenac is still available and still in use, and it is critical for the survival
of these species that the presence of NSAIDs can be monitored in the environment.
A method was developed to identify diclofenac residues from keratinous matrices, such as beak,
talons and feathers, which are much longer-lived than soft tissues. In preliminary research samples were
evaporated to dryness in a nitrogen blow-down system, but this method soon proved to suffer a number of
drawbacks. Fitting samples beneath the needles could take 10-15 minutes and extracted samples could take
several hours to dry. As samples dried at different rates within the heater they required constant monitoring. Furthermore
the system was limited to 30 samples per batch.
Due to these problems method testing was very long-winded and time-consuming and an alternate method of
sample evaporation was sought. The miVac DNA concentrator provided the answer.
The miVac DNA had already been used successfully in other similar applications, offering ease of use,
uniformity and speed. Up to 44 samples could be dried down in approximately 15 minutes, with no incidents of
partial or incomplete drying. The miVac could also be pre-programmed and left to run without requiring
operator attention mid-process, leaving the researcher free to work on other tasks. In addition miVac requires
no consumables, a valuable feature for use in rural or remote areas where the supply chain of scientific materials
may be weak.
Due to the speed and efficiency of the miVac, at least 15,000 samples were able to be dried down by
a single PhD researcher during the course of the study. The miVac produced results that were reliable and
the samples could therefore be analysed with confidence. A miVac DNA concentrator is now in permanent
use at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya for this purpose.
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