Purcell_Nanophyetus_Data_Release_2017

Dataset for the paper entitled 'Detection of Nanophyetus salmincola in water, snails and fish tissues by quantitative PCR' AbstractWe report the development and validation of two quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays to detect N. salmincola DNA in water samples and fish and snail tissues. Analytical and diagnostic validation demonstrated good sensitivity, specificity and repeatability of both qPCR assays. N. salmincola DNA copy number in kidney tissue was significantly correlated with metacercariae counts based on microscopy. Extraction methods were optimized for the sensitive qPCR detection of N. salmincola DNA in settled water samples. Artificially spiked samples suggested that the 1 cercaria / L threshold corresponded to an estimated log10 copies / L > 6.0. Significant correlation of DNA copy number / L and microscopic counts indicated that the estimated qPCR copy number was a good predictor of the waterborne cercariae number. However, the detection of real-world samples below the estimated 1 cercaria / L threshold suggests that the assays may also detect other parasite life stages, non-intact cercariae or free DNA that settles with the debris. In summary, the qPCR assays reported here are suitable for identifying and quantifying all life stages of N. salmincola that occur in fish tissues, snail tissues and water.