Rapid Pen Side Diagnostic Test for Classical Swine Fever

1. CSF is a highly contagious viral disease of swine. 2. The US is free of this disease; however, the disease is widespread in most islands of the Caribbean Sea, and in Mexico, and Central and South America. 3. Either enhancement of presently available tests or development of newer tests is of utmost importance. 4. The US must be prepared to protect its swine industry from the threat of either inadvertent or deliberate introduction of CSF. 1. Our proposal is to make cheaper recombinant antibodies for the eventual development of a pen-side antigen capture assay. A sufficiently cheap pen-side test for more extensive use in surveillance of inadvertent or deliberate introduction of diseases will be very useful for risk management of emerging diseases and as a biosecurity measure at the farm level. 2. In order to create a pen-side assay for the detection of CSFV, OmniSite proposes the development of a hand-held, lightweight, easy-to-use detection system to identify the target of interest using pre-loaded reagents in a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) cartridge.