Malaysia Veterinary Forum (Archive)

Dr. TanDY

Hi all!

Currently my research team is working on VRE isolated from Malaysia poultry farms. Heard of VRE? If not, you should.

Caption: Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci (VRE)

VRE is a kind of bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics and pose significant public health threat to the consumer. It's actual origin is unclear but scientists say that it is probably due to the overuse of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in the poultry farm.

VRE does not cause health problem in the chicken. However, it can infect immunocompromised human patient (e.g. cancer and AIDS patient) and represents one of the most common hospital acquired infections in the ICU ward. It can even kill if it infects an immunocompromised patient.

For your information, Singapore has banned several Malaysia poultry farms that are positive for VRE.

It appears to us that VRE is not uncommon in Malaysia. Right now, we have many VRE positive samples (> 100 samples) stored in our fridge. We carry out many research works to study these Malaysian VRE isolates.

Is VRE a problem in your farm? What do you think, is it common in the Malaysia poultry farm?

Are you a farm vet? What do you advise the farmer regarding VRE?

Dr. TanDY · Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 7:15 pm Post subject:

Just to update on the research progress

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My team and I have successfully won 2 awards for VRE Research. We have produced a rapid test kit for the detection of VRE - Multi-VRE PCR kit. The kit can be used for simultaneous detection and genotyping VRE in a single reaction.

We have won:

(1) Anugerah Inovasi Penyelidikan Bersama Sektor Awan Dengan Swasta 2007 (AIPB 2007 Award)
(2) Anugerah Saintis Muda Selangor 2007 (Innovative Product of Selangor in 2007)

We also have a huge collection of VRE isolated from the animals. Should you are interested to collaborate with us, PM me. Thank you.