The AgBiosciences Innovation Grant (ABIG) program — a joint venture between OARDC and OSU Extension — was designed to transform discovery and knowledge into nnovations that have positive economic, social, and environmental impacts, while contributing to local and state economies and promoting an entrepreneurial culture within the university.

Six Centers have been funded in part by ABIG — the Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center, the Center for Innovation Based Enterprise, the Center for Food Safety and Agrosecurity, the Center for Advanced Functional Food Research and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Urban Environment and Economic Development, and the Center for Diagnostic Assays.

Within the past year, the Center for Diagnostic Assays (CDA) took a big step toward reaching ABIG’s overall goal — the development of a first-of-its-kind validated real-time RT-PCR assay for the detection of very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV), a highly contagious disease of poultry that is causing major losses to this multibillion-dollar industry worldwide and is threatening to invade the United States.

“Until now, no validated rapid assay for the detection of all known vvIBDV strains existed,” said Daral Jackwood, a molecular biologist with OARDC’s Food Animal Health Research Program and CDA director. “In countries with vvIBDV, this assay is necessary for the effective monitoring and control of this devastating disease. In countries without the virus, the assay would be a first line of defense needed to prevent vvIBDV from entering domestic poultry operations.”

An international IBDV expert, Jackwood has more than 20 years of experience researching this disease and has previously developed and patented commercially available tests to detect variant IBDV strains. His experience and successful research record resulted in a direct request from veterinarians and scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for a molecular vvIBDV assay. APHIS helped OARDC secure part of the funding for this work from the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association and granted the institution permission to obtain vvIBDV genomic material from all over the world. In fact, OARDC is the nation’s only facility authorized to work with such viruses.

The next step involves getting the test to market. Ohio State has invited inquiries from scientific companies interested in discussing a potential collaboration with the university to produce and market a vvIBDV real-time RT-PCR assay kit worldwide. The prospects for commercialization, Jackwood said, are very good.

Since vvIBDV can kill up to 80 percent of a flock, having this test is essential to keeping the poultry industry in the United States and Ohio viable. The United States is the world’s largest poultry producer and the second-largest egg producer and exporter of poultry meat, with an annual farm value exceeding $20 billion. And Ohio boasts a $3.3-billion poultry industry, one of the top in the nation.