The Laboratorio Central de Veterinaria in Madrid, Spain's reference laboratory for the genotyping of scrapie in sheep, is using Tecan's Freedom EVO® series of robotic workstations to develop an automated, high throughput application to identify 'at risk' animals. Scrapie genotyping is based on a single nucleotide extension (SNE) assay that identifies four polymorphisms within the PRNP prion protein encoding gene affecting the susceptibility of an individual animal for the disease.

Stephan Sidler, Head of the laboratory, explained:
"New legislation requires all member states of the EU to establish a breeding programme to improve scrapie resistance in sheep, and genotyping is a useful way to select animals for this. We chose Tecan instruments because they were compatible with our 384 well format and they offered reliability, durability and flexibility to help us reach our two main goals of high throughput with reduced consumable costs. Primary sample distribution is done on two Freedom EVO 150s using the PosID™ module for sample bar code identification. Two Freedom EVO 200s with the Te-MO™ 96 pipettor option, using both fixed steel and disposable tips, then perform the DNA extraction, PCR set-up and PCR reactions, with both PCR clean-up and enzymatic clean-up following the SNE assay done on the Te-MO 384 channel pipetting option. The Tecan high throughput, automated instruments mean that we have reached our goal of achieving 95 per cent of results within two weeks."

About Tecan

Tecan (www.tecan.com) is a leading player in the Life Sciences supply industry that specializes in the development, production, and distribution of solutions enabling the discovery of pharmaceutical substances, as well as for genomics, proteomics, and diagnostics. Through its subsidiary REMP (www.remp.com) Tecan is a leading supplier of compound and sample storage, managerial and logistic solutions. Tecan clients are leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, university research departments and diagnostic laboratories. Founded in Switzerland in 1980, the company has manufacturing, research and development sites in both North America and Europe and maintains a sales and service network in 52 countries. In 2004, Tecan achieved sales of CH 286.0 million (USD 230.6 million; EUR 185.7 million). Registered shares of Tecan Group are traded on the SWX Swiss Exchange (TK: TECN / Reuters: TECZn.S / Valor: 1210019).

For further information please contact:

Tecan Switzerland AG
Seestrasse 103
CH-8708 Männedorf

T +41 44 922 81 11
F +41 44 922 81 12
www.tecan.com