Dominica is now one of two Eastern Caribbean islands now using Real Time diagnosis in Agriculture.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, through the Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM) programme, has procured an advanced piece of equipment for plant and animal diagnosis, thus introducing real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to the island. Barbados is the only other Eastern Caribbean island with a Life Cycler 96 machine.
A three-day training on the use of the Life Cycler was conducted by two representatives of Roche Diagnostics, based in Barbados. The training, which ended on Thursday, 10th November 2016, took place at the Molecular Laboratory at the Botanic Gardens and targeted staff of the Division of Agriculture, namely the Veterinary Services and Plant Protection and Quarantine Services.
According to head of the Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory, Mr. Trevorne Douglas, the lab can now provide services to these departments in a more timely and efficient manner.
“Real-time PCR technology is going to give us an opportunity to further expand our capacity to provide diagnostic services to those various units and departments we support. So, that technology is going to be used to monitor plant health in the [Citrus] Certification Facility, monitor animal welfare at the Captive Breeding Facility for the Mountain Chicken Conservation Programme … support the Livestock department in terms of Leptospirosis surveillance [and] Rickettsia surveillance and also we are looking to get involved in Avian Influenza surveillance and monitoring.”
For his part, Mr. Douglas believes that the purchase of the machine and requisite training are well worth the estimated cost of XCD$101,000.00.
“It’s a more expensive assay but the reliability and the sensitivity of the equipment is going to allow us to do a lot more work in quicker time and provide better quality service to our clients,” says Douglas.
According to trainer Leticia Trejo, real-time PCR is a diagnostic method which utilizes DNA for diagnostics, “It’s actually quite straight forward. Normally diseases are caused by micro-organisms so we are looking to see if DNA of micro-organisms is in our sample and the sample can be whatever- plants, animals, humans. We amplify the DNA to see if it is present or absent, if its present we assume the microorganism is present and we diagnosis as positive for the disease.”
This test method builds on Dominica’s previous nested PCR which was less sensitive but was used for diagnostics of the Chytrid (pronounced kee-trid) Fungus affecting the Mountain Chicken since 2005. This piece of equipment elevates the diagnostic capabilities of Dominica’s Molecular Lab to among the best in many developing countries especially the within the Caribbean Region.
Launched during the 2013 Europe Day celebrations, the BAM programme is a 5-year €15.27-million initiative which seeks to enhance competitiveness and increase productivity in the Agricultural sector.
The third world does not control the price of its produce hence these exploitative initatives bring us into debt to those who benefit from our relative economic poverty. This might well be a nice piece of kit but it aint free…
What is BAM? Read how its funded and work out the rest for yourselves.
From the European Union website:
The Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM) are a support package for 10 banana-exporting countries from the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states.
EU Regulation 1341/2011 amending Regulation (EC) 1905/2006 establishing a financing instrument for development cooperation is the legal basis of the BAM strategy.
The total financial allocation for the period 2012-13 is €190 million.
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I’m not an agriculturist but I understand economics so these questions need asking. Maybe someone can find out
Will the return justify the investment? If so, to what timescale?
Are the margins in banana production still worthwhile for…
some of you guys can be so negative. Especially if you guys are abroad. stay abroad until trump kick all u butt back home
U know these public servants making me laugh and cry at the same time. I mean what sense it makes for Skerrit, Drigo, and the MOA or BAM, to talk about investment in diognostic equipment when Skerrit skillfully and conviniently killed bananas? Is this a brand new piece of equipment that just came on the market? If not, then why was it not brought in before they killed bananas? I wonder what diagnostic equipment they will bring to help resurrect sports, education, the economy, the community, justice and all the other ministries that they have killed and totally destroyed. Dominica is so dead that the so called face look they gave it during the independence reminds me of a dead person in the funeral home that gets a face lift and given a beautiful smile, but dead to be buried. These guys killed the country and instead of investing in diagnostic equipment to diagnose plants they killed they would be better off in vesting in diagnostic equipment to save lives at the PMH
dude enough already with the prime minister this and that… election finish years ago… time to work long past!
if you see an issue do the work to rectify it… talking an blaming doesn’t fix anything!
We welcome everything which brings about positive change to the Island. Lots of cultivation is going on now and we are hoping that more markets are sought to improve our economic structure. We can work together to accomplish our goals. Pssst…. remember Christ in all that we do!
The ministry of agriculture in Dominica is very much like the Democratic party in the USA.Whilst this piece of equipment is useful and will help diagnose threats to the sector in terms of diseases,pests etc,the major issues and problems facing the sector are not being addressed.The Democrats were over the heads of the people with their agenda and not addressing the issues and concerns that those in the practice of agriculture say they have.Trump tapped into articulating the anxieties,fears and concerns of the majority.The main concerns from farmers are markets and access roads.There is also the need for access to finance and other inputs.When banana was King there were certain structures in place like DBMC which played a major part in providing structure to the industry.Farmers were organized,inputs were bought in bulk so lower prices,marketing of produce was done on a group level for price stability,information flows were streamlined etc.Why can’t the ministry learn
If only we could get everything working on “real time” we’d really be getting somewhere.
In the 1980’s there used to be four clocks in the Antigua Airport departure lounge. One told Tokyo time, one New York time, one London time and one Caribbean time. The first three ticked merrily away but the one telling Caribbean time was stopped!