National Laboratory of Parasitology

Some diseases cause severe damage to animals; hence the importance of establishing an epizootiological surveillance system capable of facilitating prevention, early warning, control and eradication of different diseases.

San Antonio de los Baños, a municipality in the province of Artemisa, has in its territory the National Laboratory of Parasitology, founded in 1986 as the country’s leading center in the diagnosis and integrated control of internal and external parasitic diseases of animals. At the facility, studies are carried out using laboratory techniques and veterinary models. Anthelmintic products are evaluated for the national registration of medicines and pesticides.

A group of specialists develops standards, procedures and other regulations for the diagnosis of resistance to antiparasitic products, implements tools to avoid the unreasonable use of chemical substances and introduces novel techniques in order to counteract the adverse effects of medicines on the animal population of economic importance.

Attached to the Institute of Veterinary Medicine, the Ariguanabense institution collaborates with the National Center of Agricultural Health, the Agrarian University of Havana and several cattle companies of the country, among other entities. The scientific center is part of the Advisory Committee of the Central Registry of Veterinary Medicines and Pesticides, where it carries out the verification of the quality indicators of the external antiparasitic products through techniques recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and participates in the supervision of programs for the control of parasitic diseases, It also provides animals for the diagnosis of other laboratories with which it applies joint tests.

For its contributions to the veterinary science, the scientific area treasures recognitions of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, the Technological Innovation Prize and diverse awards granted in forums of the specialty. The institution supplies the GAVAC vaccine against the bovine tick, and provides the use of fungi, to affect the evolutionary cycle of the parasite.

The National Laboratory of Parasitology also contributes to the developing of specialists, who develop a meritorious collective contribution to the achievements of the Cuban Revolution in the field of veterinary science.