Location: Foreign Arthropod Borne Animal Disease Research
Project Number: 3022-32000-024-002-N
Project Type: Non-Funded Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2018
End Date: Jun 30, 2023
Objective:
Develop and expedite the evaluation and standardization of Arbovirus diagnostic assays and vaccine control strategies.
Approach:
This project will utilize the vector-borne disease expertise of the ARS, Arthropod-Borne Animal Diseases Research Laboratory (ABADRL) and the animal diagnostic and vaccine expertise of the Agricultural Research Council, Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute (ARC-OVI) to develop, evaluate, and standardize diagnostic assays and vaccines for arboviruses. The approach will be to evaluate existing and newly developed diagnostic technologies in comparison to current tools. The collaborative project will include the evaluation of existing and newly developed diagnostic tests such as various viral genome amplification assays (real-time RT-PCR and metagenomics sequencing) and immunological assays (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and lateral flow assays) based on recombinant antigens. This will be achieved through provision of access to biological material for direct comparison of available assays in both field-deployable and diagnostic laboratory-based formats. The goal is to provide recommendations for standardized diagnostics that can be universally applied by international disease outbreak response teams.
