Bull. Vet. Inst. Pulawy 47, 89-93, 2003 USEFULNESS OF RAPID TESTS FOR DIAGNOSIS OF BSE MIROSŁAW P. POLAK, MAGDALENA LARSKA, WOJCIECH ROŻEK AND JAN F. ŻMUDZIŃSKI Department of Virology, National Veterinary Research Institute, 24-100 Pulawy, Poland e-mail: ppolak@piwet.pulawy.pl Received for publication February 11, 2003. Experience from the application of rapid tests for BSE diagnosis in comparison to reference methods is described. Sensitivity and specificity of all three rapid tests was evaluated. Detection of the first three cases of BSE in Poland was based on rapid tests which gave positive results. Opposite to that histopathology was negative/positive/positive while immuno- histochemistry was positive/weak positive/positive in the first, the second and third case of BSE, respectively. Key words: cattle, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, rapid tests, diagnosis. When testing cattle for BSE two aspects of successful monitoring should be considered. One is availability of reliable (100% sensitive and specific) and rapid tests and another is testing specific groups of animals where probability of the detection of BSE is the highest - so called risk groups. Preliminary report of the European Commission from July 8, 1999 evaluated four and accepted three rapid tests for BSE monitoring (3). According to David Byrne, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, available data shows that rapid tests account for 2 out of 3 of BSE cases detected in the European Union (EU) (1). Definition of risk groups was first introduced in Switzerland in 1999 (2, 5). BSE clinical suspects were tested within passive surveillance while risk animals were included in active monitoring and they comprise: dead-on-farm animals, emergency slaughtered animals and animals sent for normal slaughter but found sick at ante mortem inspection (sanitary slaughter). At the moment most cases of BSE (except BSE clinical suspects) are found in risk animals. About one in every thousand animals in this category tests is positive for BSE (0.09%) (1). On the other hand, only one animal per thirty thousand healthy tested, scores positive for BSE (0.003%). Passive monitoring of all BSE clinical suspects with histopathology was introduced in Poland at the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), Pulawy in 1996. Between March 1996 and August 2002, 1723 samples have been tested - all with negative results. Active monitoring was introduced in January 2001 also at the NVRI, in Department of Virology while additional 4 regional labs in Gdansk, Cracow, Warsaw and Wroclaw were opened in October 2001. At present all healthy animals