Meeting global demand for aquaculture products through more intensive farming has made
the aquaculture sector highly prone to infectious diseases. The currently available diagnostic methods are not suitable for use at pondside and often take long (3-5 days) for results to become available. To overcome this, we have developed a novel molecular tool, ChromaLAMP, for rapid detection of fish pathogen at point of need. Results of this assay are available within 30 minutes and user can distinguish between positive and negative based on color change (visual detection). We have used this approach to develop a diagnostic assay for rapid detection of Flavobacterium sp.
Materials and Method: LAMP primers were designed for specific detection of Flavobacterium sp. LAMP primers were mixed with ChromaLAMP Master Mix (Varigen Biosciences, WI) and incubated at 68°C for 30 minutes. Color change from Blue to Purple indicated positive reaction, whereas no color change (blue color) indicated a negative reaction (Figure 1).
Results: To determine assay sensitivity, serial 10-fold dilutions of Flavobacterium sp. DNA were tested. Results showed high sensitivity of ChromaLAMP test kit for rapid detection of Flavobacterium sp. (Figure 2).