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GD/X Filter Reduces Sample Contamination at Georgia Poultry Lab
Helen Evans, Business Development Director Whatman LabSciences Group
Organization
Georgia Poultry Laboratory is operated by the Georgia Poultry Improvement Association in conjunction with the United States Department of Agriculture and Georgia Department of Agriculture under contract agreement. The Georgia Poultry Improvement Association is the official state agency for the administration of the National Poultry Improvement Plan. The Virology Lab is one of the nine branch Poultry Diagnostic Labs in Georgia. The Virology Lab is focused on performing virus isolation.
Project/Challenge
As part of the Georgia Poultry Lab's research, Len Chappell, research specialist and master in Medical Microbiology, receives chicken tissues and organs that are separately homogenized, centrifuged, and filtered, all in an effort to isolate and study certain viruses. Once the tissues and organs are homogenized and centrifuged, Len and his group are tasked with filtering the resulting supernatant (the fluid that surfaces on top). The objective is to pass the supernatant through a filter to remove bacteria and heavy molecules from the supernatant that might contaminate the tissue culture and egg inoculations. However, the supernatants are extremely thick and therefore in most cases, it is most difficult to filter and/or requires many filters.
Their previous solution called for aspirating the supernatants in a syringe by applying a combination of two filters in order to push the solutions through into a sterile vial. In order to filter approximately 5.0 mL of supernatant, the laboratory had to change the filter combinations several times, depending on the thickness and turbidity of the solutions. This process is also expensive and laborious, and as a result, it became obvious to Len and his team at the Georgia Poultry Lab that they needed to find a more efficient solution.
Solution
Len was then introduced to the Whatman GD/X Filter for the supernatant filtration process. After trying these filters on some of the prepared homogenates, he found that one GD/X gradient filter could filter two to three times more than the combination filter previously used.
After removing the liquid by suction, or aspirating the supernatant into the 10 cc syringe and placing the syringe filter on this syringe, they can filter the entire 10 mL into a tube without having to re-insert a new filter. This additional step could likely result in sample contamination despite working inside a biological safety cabinet. The fewer the manipulations, the less likely contamination will occur.
Results
The Georgia Poultry Laboratory has realized some encouraging results including less contamination, lower costs, and timesaving.
"The rates of contamination after we started using the GD/X filter have decreased. I think the reason for this is with the other system; we had to push too hard on the syringe in passing the contents through the prefilter/filter combo. If you push too hard creating tons of head pressure, it could exceed the limits (in PHI) of the filter unit," says Chappell. "We tended to push too hard to get more volume through, thus avoiding changing filters so often. If we weren't careful we could find ourselves standing on the syringe to push the volume through!"
Based on Len's observations, he foresees that the GD/X will outperform the combination filter for their application in the Virology department. In addition, the Lab is saving 100% cost in their syringe filtering operation. "[The] GD/X is a one-step, one-unit process as opposed to using a combination of filters from other competitors. For most of the tissue we sample, the GD/X will filter twice the volume of the competitor, especially for thick supernatants," concludes Len Chappell.
Whatman Inc.
9 Bridewell Place
Clifton, NJ 07014
Fro
Whatman Inc.
200 Park Ave., Suite 210
Florham Park, NJ, 07932
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