Nanotechnologies applied to veterinary diagnostics.

Improved, quality assured diagnostics are important for disease control in animals; they provide a basis for appropriate treatments of animal patients, for monitoring diseases and for the enhancement of disease-surveillance capacity. The past decade has brought about impressive advances in surface and materials science and engineering, as well as in the development of new microelectronic components. These tools hold the promise of miniaturizing diagnostic devices, which could dramatically reduce costs and increase throughput and sensitivity of a wide range of diagnostic tests for veterinary applications. Recent biotechnological developments, including micro- and nanotechnologies, have led to the proliferation of new, rapid diagnostic tests, based on microfluidic, microarray, electronic and photo-electronic, integrated on-chip and nanotechnology together with analytical systems, which enable the development of point-of-care analysers.