A Sorbent Technology for eDNA Collection and Concentration for Aquaculture Pathogen Detection

Disease outbreaks are being increasingly recognized as a significant constraint to aquacultureproduction and trade and are affecting economic development. Monitoring fish health for earlydetection of diseases is paramount to secure a safe and sustainable aquaculture industry.Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a promising tool that has not yet delivered its disruptive potentialfor aqualcuture health moniring. While sensitive and reliable eDNA detection techniques such asPCR are widely available the major limitation today is the quality and reliability of eDNAsampling techniques in aquaculture environments. Current sampling tools still use nitrocellulosefilters that are not designed for that purpose. As a result the sampling effort is significant and thecollected samples contain low eDNA concentrations and high amount of PCR inhibitors resultingin unreliable disease detection. In this SBIR Phase I proposal we offer the demonstration of thefeasibility and proofof concept of a novel eDNA sorbent kit that relies on chemical affinity-basedeDNA sorption rather than size exclusion used by conventional techniques. This new conceptwould allow faster more efficient and cost-effective collection and concentration of clean eDNAfrom large volumes of aquaculture water thus enabling more reliable and affordable aquatic diseasediagnostics. The novel sorbent can also be used to monitor the presence and abundance of farmedfish species but also the presence of aquatic invasive species by a simple eDNA analysis thusenabling a better management of sustainable and productive fisheries and aquaculture andimproving food safety and security.