Results from the first bimester of work at the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences-UNLP: COVID-19 diagnostic unit

The COVID-19 pandemic required rapid development and approval of diagnostic methods and kits Nasal swab samples (n=1114) were derived to Faculty of Veterinary Sciences- UNLP COVID-19 diagnostic unit by the Buenos Aires Province Ministry of Health during June and July 2020, to perform molecular diagnosis of SARS- CoV-2 Samples of RNA were purified in a type II biosafety cabin and analyzed by real time RT-PCR with the GeneFinderTM kit, which amplifies 3 viral target genes (N, E y RdRp) Of the 1110 samples with positive internal control, 458 (41 2%) were positive (26 9% to all target genes, 4 2% to 2 target genes and almost 10% to one gene, mainly N) Percentage of positive samples remained similar throughout the study period, although the sample number was higher in July (781 samples;315 positive) compared to June (333 samples;143 positive) Samples from Berisso, Ensenada and La Plata had significantly lower positive rate than those coming from other counties (27 6% versus 60 7%, respectively) Positivity rate was higher in samples from patients with 3 clinical signs (55 6%) It is necessary to conduct inter-laboratory validation studies and standardization of diagnostic methods used in order to obtain reliable and reproducible results