Development and evaluation of gold nanoprobe based lateral flow device for rapid and sensitive serodetection of Bluetongue in sheep

Bluetongue (BT) disease is a viral, insect borne, noncontagious illness of small ruminants caused by Orbivirus, impacting huge economic loss worldwide. The existing BT diagnostic techniques are costly, time-consuming and require both specialized equipment and also skilled personnel. So there is need to develop a rapid, sensitive, on site detection assay for diagnosis of BT. This study utilized secondary antibody derivatized Gold nanoprobes for rapid and sensitive detection of BT over lateral flow device (LFD). The detection limit for this assay was found 1.875 µg of BT IgG/ml and a comparison between LFD and indirect ELISA was performed and the sensitivity and specificity was found at 96% and 99.23%, respectively, with observed kappa value of 0.952. This developed LFD may therefore offer a quick, affordable and accurate diagnosis of BT disease at the field level.