The Department of Agriculture teamed up with the Pampanga State Agricultural University to provide the agri-fishery sector with access to cutting-edge technologies that can accurately detect and effectively manage, control and contain emerging animal diseases.
“The launch of this project is both timely and relevant, as it marks a new milestone in our efforts to boost our capacity to accurately detect and effectively manage emerging animal diseases, including that of transboundary diseases, here in Central Luzon and nearby regions,” said Agriculture Secretary William Dar.
The DA and PSAU signed a memorandum of agreement on Aug. 8 in Pampanga. “Supporting this project can help us in a big way in the future. Let us tap the best of molecular science and all biotechnology tools available for the very problems we have in the country. Let us not waste time,” Dar said.
The project, “DNA Analysis for Accurate Diagnosis of Emerging Deadly Viruses among Agri-fisheries of Central Luzon,” with P6.4 million funding from the Bureau of Agricultural Research, will generate information that can be used by drug manufacturing industries to build custom design vaccines to control and/or eliminate different viral strains.