UNITED NATIONS, March 20 (UPI) -- The United Nations says a joint-agency program is helping develop a mobile testing device with the possibility of revolutionizing the fight against bird flu.
John Crowther of the Vienna-based Joint U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization-International Atomic Energy Agency Program's animal production and health section said Monday scientists are hoping to shrink the device, now the size of a small portable television set, to the size of a pen.
He also said it could be used for detecting other livestock diseases by saving vital time in identifying the source of outbreaks and so increase the chances of containing the spread.
Crowther said the topic was high on the agenda of a five-day U.N meeting starting in the Austrian Capital Monday.
"The genius here is that such mobile testers can be used by anyone, with the most basic training," said Crowther. "Even farmers could do a test and the result could immediately be processed back to a central point, like a mobile phone message.
"Within two years, such tests could revolutionize disease diagnosis," he added, noting work is underway to reduce the device's size further into what researchers call a "laboratory in a pen."
"Ultimately the tests would be done locally by people in their own countries, making," Crowther said.
At this week's meeting, researchers, scientists and manufacturers from 13 countries as well as international bodies and commercial concerns from Europe and the United States, are discussing the development and potential of portable devices to study samples and discover the cause of death in birds.
