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Published on: September 19, 2017
A field-deployable microfluidic platform for point-of-care testing of aquaculture biosecurity
Lei Xu1, Fei Yao2,3, Caroline Zhang4
1School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
NPJ Science of Food
|July 14, 2026
Summary
A new microfluidic diagnostic platform enables rapid, on-site detection of shrimp infectious diseases. This technology empowers farmers with timely biosecurity management, improving aquaculture health and safety.
Area of Science:
- Aquaculture
- Microfluidics
- Molecular Diagnostics
Background:
- Infectious diseases pose a significant threat to aquaculture, especially shrimp farming.
- Current diagnostic methods lack on-site applicability due to complexity and delayed results.
- There is an urgent need for deployable diagnostic technologies for effective biosecurity management in aquaculture.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a deployable microfluidic platform for automated nucleic acid testing of shrimp pathogens.
- To enable rapid, on-site detection of multiple infectious agents in shrimp farming environments.
- To assess the platform's performance and usability for untrained farmers.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an injection-molded SlipChip microfluidic device for automated nucleic acid testing.
- Developed a workflow for processing shrimp tissue samples directly on the microfluidic platform.
- Validated the platform's performance against quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) using field samples.
Main Results:
- The platform detected four key shrimp pathogens (Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei, white spot syndrome virus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, decapod iridescent virus 1) within 35 minutes.
- Achieved a limit of detection as low as 200 copies/reaction for the targeted pathogens.
- Demonstrated high concordance with qPCR results (κ = 0.957) across 103 shrimp samples.
- Untrained farmers successfully performed pathogen detection independently, highlighting ease of use.
Conclusions:
- The developed microfluidic platform offers a deployable solution for rapid, on-site infectious disease diagnostics in aquaculture.
- This technology facilitates timely biosecurity management and infection control in shrimp farming.
- The platform shows potential for broader point-of-care testing (POCT) applications in food safety and animal health.
