Rapid, Simple Diagnostic for Pathogens in Marine Aquaculture

"Chronic malnourishment globally affects more than 800 million people with an expected population growth of another 2 billion over the next 30 years. Today, aquaculture accounts for nearly 50 percent of the world’s food fish and is one of the fastest growing food-producing sectors. The biggest threat to global aquaculture production is infectious disease. While marine diseases are a naturally occurring aspect of an ocean ecosystem, the development of large-scale intensive aquaculture has resulted in the dramatic increase of disease outbreaks from a wide range of pathogens, including parasites, viruses and bacteria. These outbreaks can result in catastrophic economic losses for the industry. Lynntech proposes to develop and economical, rapid, user-friendly, field-ready diagnostic able to detect the presence of pathogens known to be major problems in the aquaculture industry. In this Phase I feasibility effort, we will establish our assay parameters to specifically detect aquaculture pathogens. During a future Phase II effort, we will expand our assay to detect additional pathogens and conduct field studies using a prototype developed during Phase II. The Lynntech detection assay will advance efforts to detect pathogens in the field, able to be used by untrained users onsite."