Development and laboratory validation of a lateral flow device for the detection of foot-and-mouth disease virus in clinical samples

A lateral flow device (LFD) for the detection of all seven serotypes of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) was developed using a monoclonal antibody (Mab 1F10) shown to be pan-reactive to FMDV strains of each serotype by ELISA. The performance of the LFD was evaluated in the laboratory on suspensions of vesicular epithelia (304 positive and 1003 negative samples) from suspected cases of vesicular disease collected from 86 countries between 1965 and 2008 and negative samples collected from healthy animals. The diagnostic sensitivity of the LFD for FMDV was similar at 84% compared to 85% obtained by the reference method of antigen ELISA, and the diagnostic specificity of the LFD was approximately 99% compared to 99.9% for the ELISA. The device recognized FMDV strains of wide diversity of all seven serotypes but weaker reactions were often evident with those of type SAT 2, several viruses of which were not detected. Reactions with the viruses of swine vesicular disease and vesicular stomatitis that produce clinically indistinguishable syndromes in pigs and cattle, did not occur. The test procedure was simple and rapid, and typically provided a result within 1–10 min of sample addition. Simple homogenizers that could be used in field conditions for preparing epithelial suspensions were demonstrated to be effective for LFD application. These data illustrate the potential for the LFD to be used next to the animal in the pen-side diagnosis of FMD and for providing rapid and objective support to veterinarians in their clinical judgment of the disease.