The current diagnostic methods for the great variety of microbial agents affecting health are clearly unsatisfactory. New important pathogens have emerged including the agent responsible for bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Moreover, there is an increasing need for more accurate microbial control of our environment, and of the food and water we consume. What is needed are rapid,
sensitive and reliable procedures which, on the one hand,
should be suitable for automation and, onthe other hand,
presented in a cost-effective version suitable for field use. Including new biochemical approaches, such as polymerase chain reaction, recombinant gene products and synthetic peptides, these needs are discussed in these prools of the RAMI-90 congress.