Portable Magnetofluidic Device for Point-of-Need Detection of African Swine Fever
Liben Chen, Kai Wen, Fan‐En Chen, Alexander Y. Trick, Hebin Liu, Shibei Shao, Wenbo Yu, Kuangwen Hsieh, Zhanhui Wang, Jianzhong Shen, Tza‐Huei Wang
Abstract
With a nearly 100% mortality rate, African swine fever (ASF) has devastated the pork industry in many countries. Without a vaccine in sight, mitigation rests on rapid diagnosis and immediately depopulating infected or exposed animals. Unfortunately, current tests require centralized laboratories with well-trained personnel, take days to report the results, and thus do not meet the need for such rapid diagnosis. In response, we developed a portable, sample-to-answer device that allows for ASF detection at the point of need in <30 min. The device employs droplet magnetofluidics to automate DNA purification from blood, tissue, or swab samples and utilizes fast thermal cycling to perform real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), all within an inexpensive disposable cartridge. We evaluated its diagnostic performance at six farms and slaughter facilities. The device exhibits high diagnostic accuracy with a positive percent agreement of 92.2% and a negative percent agreement of 93.6% compared with a lab-based reference qPCR test.