The British government hopes to develop a test for bird flu within hours.

Credit: National Centre for Biotechnology Information (U.S.)

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LONDON: The British government said yesterday that its scientists are developing a single test that could spot more than 600 deadly viruses, including bird flu, rabies and foot and mouth disease, within hours.

The government hoped the so-called "Lab on a Chip" - laboratory on a microchip - will be able to detect diseases in up to 36 hours, much faster than current methods of confirming viruses, which can take as long as seven to 10 days.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is pumping 1.5 million pounds (A$3.7 million) into the project as a key line of defence against possible future health scares.

"Identifying the cause of a disease outbreak is vital if we're to put the right actions in place," said DEFRA's chief scientific adviser, Howard Dalton.

The test works by placing DNA extracts from the unidentified virus onto a chip covered with samples of DNA from known conditions. Depending on where the DNA "sticks", scientists can then determine the unidentified virus.

The whole process takes from just a few hours to 36 hours.

In the case of bird flu, the microchip could help identify when the virus has jumped from one species to another and when mutation has caused new strains to emerge from existing ones.

Researcher Ian Barker, who is leading the work at laboratories in York, northern England, added: "We're working to make the biochip sensitive enough to distinguish between diseases that have similar symptoms, such as Newcastle disease and bird flu.

"It will also be able to recognise the strains or subtypes of a virus, for example (the potentially lethal) H5N1, so we'll know what disease we're dealing with straight away."