Back to Contents

FREE FULL TEXT PDF

COST BENEFIT RATIO OF IMPORTED AND LOCALLY PRODUCED ANTISERUM AGAINST PAKISTANI ISOLATE OF BANANA BUNCHY TOP VIRUS

TAHIRA YASMIN, HUSSAIN SHAH AND SAIF KHALID

Abstract: An effort was made to estimate the cost benefit ratio of commercially available and locally produced antiserum against Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) to encourage scientists for indigenous research, a step towards self-reliance in sero-diagnosis. Comparing the cost of both antisera, the locally produced serum was found economical incurring an amount of Rs. 20,000/- that is 2.5 times lower than the imported antiserum kit involving expenditure of Rs. 45,000/-. Beside saving foreign exchange earning, locally produced antiserum is obtained in large quantity (>25 ml), which is strain specific sufficient for testing of approximately 65000 samples as compared to imported one (1 ml volume) enough for 1000 samples only. Furthermore, standardized procedure can be exploited for commercial production creating funds for routine lab-oriented research work and provides opportunity to train manpower. Besides, locally produced antiserum can be made available to provincial agricultural research institutes, extension and entry ports for checking health status of the crop and safe national and international germplasm movement. Thus the indigenous technology makes diagnosis of exact pathogen easier and convenient that will ultimately help in proper management of viral diseases.

Plant Virology Laboratory, Crop Diseases Research Program, National Agricultural Research Centre, Park road, Islamabad-45500, Pakistan.