Virology Group

Marta Lizuma

Acting Head of the Virology Group
E-mail: Marta.Lizuma@bior.lv

The Virology Group is the only place in Latvia where laboratory diagnostics of infectious animal diseases (including zoonoses) of viral origin are performed, using all the methods commonly used in the field of virology. The laboratory detects viruses in clinical and pathological samples of animal origin using diagnostic screening tests (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), immunochromatography) and sophisticated confirmatory virological assays using living biological systems – cell cultures. Laboratory diagnostic schemes for many diseases include the detection of viruses by specific molecular biology techniques such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Molecular biology techniques are of increasing importance in modern laboratory diagnostic practice for the accurate and rapid identification of a potential pathogen. Complex laboratory diagnostic monitoring of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in animals with rapid tests plays an important role in the work of the Group.