Rapid detection of Trichinella spiralis larvae in muscles by loop-mediated isothermal amplification

► Sixteen sets of primers were designed to recognise a 1.6 kb repetitive element of the Trichinella spiralis genome. ► The sensitivity of LAMP with detection limits of 362 fg/μl is >10 times higher than that of PCR. ► The assay was able to detect T. spiralis in all mouse muscle samples infected with 10 T. spiralis larvae on day 20 p.i. ► We believe this is the first report on application of a LAMP assay for detection of T. spiralis larvae in muscle samples.