High-tech diagnostic kit that has increased ability of definite diagnosis of avian influenza (AI) virus by 10 times has been developed. If accuracy of diagnosis of AI from migratory birds or poultries is increased, it is expected that damages and harms can be prevented in advance.
Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) selected and supported ‘Development of AI On-Field Diagnosis and Monitoring System)’ project, which emerged as a serious social problem, during 2014 ORP (Open Research Project). Such technologies have been developed for 3 years with supervision by Professor Song Chang-seon of Konkuk University’s Veterinary Department and Senior Researcher (Co-leader) Lee Seok of KIST. Duration of corresponding researches lasts from 2014 to end of this June.
KIST has improved ‘sensitivity of virus diagnosis’ of on-site disposable diagnostic kit by 10 times compared to current kit. Disposable diagnostic kits are still being used on fields. However because their sensitivity is low as concentration limit in detection is at 10,000 EID 50/ml, there are many instances when migratory birds and poultries with AI go undetected. There is a need to improve the concentration to 100 ~ 1,000 EID 50/ml.
“Kits that are applied with accurate diagnostic sensors can measure AI virus that has 10 times lesser of concentration and their price is also reasonable.” said Professor Kim Sang-kyeong of KIST who has developed these diagnostic kits. “Fact that sensitivity is high indicates that kits will be able to find and manage migratory birds and poultries with AI better.”
Also method of showing reaction of AI virus is changed from strip-type kit to ‘electronic’ kit that uses semiconductors. Current kits are strip-type kits that show lines when these kits are put into AI virus samples just like pregnancy kits. Disposable diagnostic kits that are newly developed are electronic kits that use semiconductor bio-sensors. It was shown that semiconductor bio-sensor-based virus detection technology with high sensitivity can measure up to 100th of concentration that can be measured with current diagnostic kit when it was used in a laboratory. However it is predicted that performance will be 10 times higher when these kits are used on fields rather than in laboratories.
Research group has also improved current strip-type kits so that positive reaction lines appear more clearly. While past kits’ lines had looked blurry when distinguishing lines with naked eyes, research group has improved kits so that lines appear more clearly and that sensitivity is 2 to 3 times higher.
“We are still continuing our research and although there is a possibility to improve performance of sensitivity, size is still about the size of a laptop.” said Professor Song Chang-seon of Konkuk University. “Reduction of size is related to semiconductors and we will be able to reduce the size of current kit to the size of a pregnancy kit in about 3 years.”
Number of poultries that has been killed due to AI, which started from last winter, surpassed 32 million and compensation fee for these poultries is about $270 million (300 billion KRW). Number of poultries that was killed due to AI in 2014 was about 14 million.
Staff Reporter Song, Hyeyoung | hybrid@etnews.com